Fluke of Fate
by Kaestal
Summary: John Fox lived his life as just an average guy but one day after reading out an equation he wrote down a bolt of lightning struck him. Completely by accident, John discovered the Speed Force equation and the power it grants him will change his life, hopefully for the better. (OC, AU)
1. The Fluke

**University of Michigan,** **Detroit**

John let out a sigh as he yet again had to grade a stack of papers, _"Why can't these things ever just solve themselves? I really need a machine invented to do this for me."_ Most of Professor Fox's students were adequate, maybe not immediately understanding what he was teaching them with the more advanced mathematics but getting in soon enough.

Four hours later John got up with a groan after grading their tests, about half of them had mastered the current material while the others needed a bit more help with it. John moved over to the classes clear glass board. John encouraged his students to come up with complex equations that make enough sense and later attempt to make a counter of sorts to them.

"Let's see." John looked over the board before coming across one of the student's attempts. "How did he get that wrong? Oh... I didn't erase this last time." A student named Jason had written an incorrect equation last week when he was struggling with mathematics, but he had demonstrated a notable improvement in his knowledge of it over the week. Jason wasn't unintelligent, he just didn't pay enough attention.

John started clicking his tongue while erasing the equations on the board, after erasing some of them the professor started to do some of his own, not the most interesting thing to do in the world but it at least kept him thinking. John let out a sigh while doing this, he had once tried doing something more interesting but let's just say that trying to get back into Tae Kwan Doe when you boss walks in doesn't always end well.

John accidentally got lost in that memory while writing, and upon realizing his hand had gone a bit further down than intended he stopped."Ah crap, what did I write down?" John looked at the two equations he accidentally made, 3X2(9YZ)4A and Z25Y(2AB)6, top and bottom respectively.

John felt a shock go through his system as he looked at the first one, and felt a pull he couldn't explain. "...3X2...(9YZ)...4A" John saw the room get a bit brighter, clearer, and felt like things _werreee goooinngg_ _soooo slooooo-_. Thunder sounded as a flash of light hit the man.

Many would look back at this moment with awe at exact the instance that a hero appeared in the world and a city that seemed to be at the center of it all gained a second savior.

John would only remember screaming his lungs out due to the pain that a bolt of lightning gives the nervous system. He was finally granted mercy before being blasted back by the bolt before slamming into the wall, his consciousness fading.

"John?" A door opened. "JOHN!" In his last moments of consciousness John saw one of his fellow staff members rushing over to him before darkness fell on his vision, and his mind soon after that.

* * *

 **2 days later, University of Michigan Hospital and Health Centers**

 _Beep..Beep..Beep..Beep._ The first thing that John heard when he awoke was a sound almost always associated with a hospital bed, a heart monitor. _"Why is that damn thing so loud?"_ John thought to himself groggily, barely able to open his eyes.

Why was everything blurry? What happened? John tried to get up but found his body screaming in protest. John instead looked around before finding a buzzer, pressing it to call a nurse to his room.

A crash sounded from outside his room before he heard someone yelling "Professor Fox is awake! Call the Doctor!" John weakly raised an eyebrow, _"How long was I out?"_ A nurse that John knew, a Ms. Victoria if he remembers correctly, opened the door.

"Mr. Fox! Uhh..." Victoria looked at the heart monitor, it was still going outrageously fast. Victoria moved to stand next to the man. "How... are you feeling?"

"Thirsty, hungry, groggy, confused as to how long I have been here." John said to the woman in a scratchy voice.

The nurse just looked at him in shock for a few seconds, he had no issues speaking, except for a scratchy voice.

"No... other issues?" John shook his head at the nurse, whose face expressed her disbelief. John saw the door open once more and a Doctor walked in.

"Anderson." John greeted quietly, he knew a few of the medical staff more than one would want. Detroit was not the safest place after all. Part of why he wanted to be a teacher, help out in any way he could.

"Ms. Victoria, may I speak with the patient?" Dr. Anderson said as he entered the room, he looked at John with confusion, _"He was only out for two days with those injuries?"_ John still had some electrical burns and a bit of a bump on his head from hitting a wall, but otherwise was fine aside from the slightly increased heart rate.

"You gave us quite the scare John, one of your colleagues found you unconscious in your classroom two days ago." John processed that information _"Two days huh? That isn't too bad, I didn't miss much... I_ _hope_."

"So... can I go?" John asked, and unsurprisingly Dr. Anderson shook his head, "Not just yet. I would like to keep you here for a few more days, make sure your stable before sending you off."

John nodded at that before the Doctor left the room, he had more patients than just a guy struck by lightning after all.

Dr. Anderson released him from their care three days later, admitting that there seemed to be nothing wrong with him but telling John to call if he felt anything wrong.

John was walking to his house as he only lived a few blocks from the University, and that wasn't too far from the Hospital he had been admitted to, the only thoughts going through his head were of that night. _"Where did that lightning come from? I don't remember any storm activity being reported that day. Cloudy yeah.. but not stormy."_ John tried to remember exactly what happened before he lost consciousness and then he recalled the mathematical formula he had spoken out loud, almost like he was possessed.

"3X2..(9YZ)..4A" John spoke those words and like he had summoned the wrath of God the lightning returned, but this time there was no pain.

John was hit once more by a bolt of electricity and he could feel the change in his body, like he just drank a dozen cups of coffee.

John felt an energy that _needed_ to get used and the man started running, yellow lightning emanating from his body as he raced from the street all the way to his classroom in less than a second.

"What... just happened." John looked around his classroom which luckily had no one in it as it was a weekend, and stood in shock at what he just did. John looked at the clear board and moved up to the formulas he had accidentally made.

As he looked at the second equation John felt that his body seemed to be begging him to say it, "Z25Y...(2AB)6" John felt the power in his body leave almost instantly like someone turned off a light bulb and ceased to illuminate a room.

John grinned at this new revelation, these two formulas somehow gave him the ability to turn superspeed on and off! _"Well... I might as well test it."_

* * *

 **Abandoned Airfield, Detroit**

"Yeah... this should do." John looked around himself, this airport was once owned by Ferris Aircraft, but like many others it had been abandoned when they went bankrupt a few years back.

John made something similar to a police's LiDAR Gun but it was able to take a more accurate and larger reading, it also had a motion sensor installed so it would start when he neared it and held a small but sturdy weight on top of it so it wouldn't get blown away by the wind. The "Speed Sensor" as he called it took him some time to build it, but upon discovering his accelerated perceptions and ability to read an entire stack of books in a few minutes it had been easy.

Of course, John couldn't really remember how he did it as the information was hazy at best, but it was still impressive.

He set the device at the halfway point on the landing strip before saying the formula once more "3X2(9YZ)4A!" Lightning flashed as John became something more again, something faster.

John raced to one end of the land strip before turning around and getting into a runner's position. He took a calming breath before he ran once more, going as fast as he could.

Once he got near the Speed Sensor it lit up in confirmation that it detected him, and upon moving past it the sensor's light went from red to green to show it managed to get a reading on his speed.

John raced through it again as he attempted to find his average speed and after a few more times he went to the device.

 _"Man.. that was a rush. Let's see..."_ John looked at the computer and stopped its recording before looked at his average velocity, and questioned if the thing was busted.

In bright red numbers it said he was on average going slightly under Mach 1, but a few of the recordings said he surpassed it at points. _"Why was there no sonic boom?"_ John took off again, this time running a much greater distance away before pushing himself as hard as possible while going back, and the newest recording said he ran at Mach 1.5 _"Is my speed somehow preventing a sonic boom from occurring?"_

John had noticed when he ran that there was no friction as his clothing hadn't just burst into flames when he went from 0 to 700, but if he was running faster than sound then something must be affecting his surroundings or even himself when running that fast.

"What have I gotten myself into?" John packed up the device before rushing home, not noticing that another person had seen him on the airfield.

"Well.. now I've seen everything." Mari thought to herself as she saw John speed off, she had come to this airfield to be alone but it seems that fate had other plans.

* * *

 **A/N so... first chapter of this takes place a quite bit before the Vixen series, and actually occurs a bit before Season 1 of The Flash. John Fox is partially based DC Comics character Johnny Quick and has the name of another speedster. Personality (if it could be called that at this time) is mine however.**

 **I also imagine John as looking somewhat similar to Justin Hartley, who portrayed Oliver Queen in Smallville.**


	2. Potential

**Mr Fox's House, 1:22 P.M**

If one of his colleagues were to walk into John's home they would be amazed by just how much dirtier it got over a single day; after he got back from testing his speed John was suddenly hungrier than he ever had been in his life, and quickly ate almost everything that didn't need to be cooked in his house.

John sighed as he finished the last box of pop-tarts, _"What the hell was that? I just now ate enough for like 10 people."_ John looked around his house and groaned, in his haste to satiate his hunger he hadn't exactly gone slow and there were papers all over his floor.

"Z25Y(2AB)6." John said, and like the first time he uttered those words he felt the power leave him and his eyes slowly closed. "why'm I so ti'rd..." John fell asleep seconds after his power shut off.

* * *

 **Sidewalk, 9:47 P.M**

Mari had been looking for the man she had seen run faster than the speed if sound, and eventually found he was a Professor at her University who she hadn't encountered before, a Mr John Fox she had discovered his name was.

As she moved up to the address she had found Mari saw a cat with black and white hair, almost like a suit. "Meow" Mari saw the little ball of fuzz walk up to her and rubbed itself against her leg before moving towards the front door to the house in across the street from her.

The cat looked back at the woman letting out another meow and stretching itself, putting its paws on the door and scratching it.

Mari looked both ways before crossing the street and rang the doorbell and a few seconds later she saw a man with a serious case of bedhead and the most tired expression she had ever seen walk out. "Jake? I... how did you get out? C'mere you." John apparently didn't notice her as he picked up the cat, now identified as Jake, and put him back inside.

"Is that your cat?" John noticed Mari finally, "Oh hello.. umm yes, did you find him?" Mari nodded her head, "Yeah, sweet little fella followed me for a bit before he ran up to your door, guess he wanted back in."

"Thanks, he occasionally gets out through one of the windows if I leave them open." John covered his hand as he let out a yawn, _"I hope this doesn't happen every time I run, I feel like sleeping for a week."_

Mari looked at the man as he yawned, _"Running that fast must've really taken a lot out of him, he looks like he slept for the whole day but still seems about drop to the floor."_ While Mari may of wanted answers she wasn't going to push him when John looked like he was about to collapse.

"Well... I better get going, see ya at school Mr Fox." John let out a groan at that name. "Please don't call me that, it makes me feel like an old man." Mari grinned at that, "I thought teachers were required by law to be 50 or older?" John smiled while shaking his head, "Not quite, I'm only 30 years old, and forgive me but I don't know your name, guess I haven't seen you around before."

"Mari, I am about to get my Bachelor in Fashion Design." John nodded at that, her degree doesn't really need advanced mathematics.

"Yeah, that's probably why we never met. See ya around, and thank you for getting Jake back here." Mari nodded before walking back to the sidewalk as he shut the door.

John sat down before turning on the Tv and changed it to the news, it had been three months since Starling City had been damaged by an earthquake and repairs were apparently coming along great.

S.T.A.R Labs had also announced that they were nearing completion of their Particle Accelerator, and planned to activate in soon.

"-nd in other news police have advised all citizens to stay in their homes tonight, as they have gotten reports of a possible gangwar in progress."

John looked at the news and thought about the potential he now had with his speed, the Police would have to canvas an area for minutes, perhaps hours searching for evidence, and even then any street thug could see a cop car coming from a mile away.

 _"But... they can't react to a man running faster than the speed of sound can they? Plus.. I could canvas an entire apartment complex in seconds if needed."_ John didn't even know if he wanted to do that, but he wasn't ready for something like that right now. He didn't have the knowledge to do so and his skills as a fighter weren't all that great, but he could learn fast.

As he went to bed that night John thought on it, there were most likely many pros and cons to being a vigilante and he couldn't just jump in without a plan. _"If I have this power at my disposal, shouldn't I use it?"_ Jake jumped up on his mattress, "Well what do you think buddy, Vigilantism has to have some benefits right?" The cat just meowed at his owner.

 _"I'd need to think of a name if I did that though."_ John thought to himself before falling asleep, he had a new potential path in life.

* * *

 **A/N so I put this quite a bit before Barry wakes up from or even enter his coma, it takes place in August**

 **A frame of reference is that the Undertaking happened in May while the Particle Accelerator explosion happened in December.**


	3. Found and Fought

_Spoilers for a certain S.T.A.R Labs founder here, but if you have seen the entirety of Season 1 this isn't an issue._

* * *

 **University Library, two days after the Test**

John had been speed reading for hours learning everything he could in the University's library, and had almost read all the instructive textbooks they had. While what he learned would be lost after about 30 minutes John found that if he reread it enough times after losing it he could gradually retain more and more, eventually remembering all that he learned while speed reading.

Granted he couldn't remember most of what he read, but he was starting to retain some knowledge, not much but it was promising.

In addition he had decided to relearn his Tae Kwon Doe and a few other martial arts, but had discovered that learning martial arts at super speed was a lot slower than learning most everything from a textbook.. or 30.

"Whoa Professor, getting some reading done?" John looked up at the person that addressed him, "Um... yes?" Fox looked around at all the finished books he had read, _"Almost all of them... that was fast."_

"Can I take this one?" John wiped his eyes before getting up and handing the book over; Fox then looked at his watch and saw that the day was almost over. John started walking back to his classroom as his greatest nemesis needed to be dealt with, grading papers.

* * *

 **S.T.A.R Labs, hours later**

Harrison, no, Eobard looked over the progress his team had been making with the Particle Accelerator and felt a small amount of pride in himself and his team, whereas it had taken the actual Harrison and his wife until 2024 to complete their work on it Eobard predicted it would be done before the end of 2014 due to his assistance.

Eobard felt a buzz come from his phone, _"Such a primitive way of communication."_ The number was one that only the time-traveler had, GIDEON's. Eobard looked at the text he had been sent, 'Dr Wells, please come to the Time Vault, it is urgent', Eobard raced to the room and saw GIDEON's projection appear.

"What is it GIDEON? Has the future changed?" GIDEON shook her head, "No Dr Wells, but I detected that someone in the city of Detroit suddenly gained access to the Speed-Force."

"Show me." Eobard said, no one should of gained powers such as this until after the Accelerator exploded and none of the history books recorded a speedster appearing before it went off.

GIDEON pulled up a satellite image of an abandoned airfield outside the city limits and slowed the recording down.

Eobard was amazed, he saw several still frames of a man running with yellow electricity emanating off of him. "GIDEON, did you track where this man went to after leaving the airfield?" Eobard knew that with the limited technology of this era facial recognition from outer space would be difficult to acquire.

"Yes Dr Wells, the man raced to his home which is registered to a College Teacher by the name of John Fox, he was recently in a coma for two days after being struck by lightning." GIDEON knew that Eobard would ask such a question, and had prepared in advanced.

"Sent the data to my suit, i'm going to have a.. "chat"... with Mr Fox." Eobard pulled out a ring that held a lightning bolt on it before pressing it against the container for his costume.

"Done." Eobard thanked GIDEON before red lightning suddenly appeared in the room and the man in the yellow suit stood. The Reverse Flash bolted out of STAR Labs and even Central City, he was going to get some answers from John Fox.

* * *

 **Weiss Park**

John had just gotten through with teaching for the day and had decided to go for a stroll, but his attempts to wind down were almost immediately dashed when he felt himself picked up and dragged into an abandoned building before being thrown to the ground like a sack.

 **"Professor John Fox."** John groaned before he got up and saw a vibrating man in a yellow suit across the room.

"Who the hell are you?" The man was suddenly right in front of John, he hadn't seen him move.

 **"That isn't** **important, what is important is that have power because quite frankly, you aren't worthy or destined for such things, so how did you get it?"** John looked at the man before him, this wasn't the kind of guy you pissed off.

"You want to know how I got that power? So do I." John muttered the formula once more and felt the rush that always occurred when activating his speed. Yellow lightning appeared in his eyes when he opened them.

 **"Some words give you speed, interesting. Smart move just muttering it under your breath, now I just have to beat it out of you."** John could now see the man race towards him and the teacher could tell he was quite a bit slower than the other man in yellow.

John saw the man was about to hit him and moved to block the punch, luckily he had recently retained just a bit of martial arts from his speed learning attempts.

Eobard was surprised when his attack was blocked by John, the man knew a bit about how to fight, not quite what one would expect from a teacher.

John moved the fist the man in yellow sent at him before attempting to slam an open palm into his face but Eobard blocked it with ease, the older speedster was much faster.

Eobard was about to grab John before the teacher took off, he knew when he was outmatched and when to get out. **"Why is he even trying to run?"** Eobard said before chasing after John.

 _"I can't outrace him, whoever this guy is he can go way faster than I can, but I might be able to remove that advantage all together."_ John glanced behind himself and saw the Man in the Yellow Suit quickly catching up, _"I have a dumb idea."_ John saw a tall building and ran straight up the side of it.

John hadn't considered whether or not his immense speed would allow him to run along the sides of buildings but as they say, necessity if the mother of all inventions.

Eobard saw this and scoffed, _"Running up the side of a building won't save him."_ Eobard quickly caught up to John but to his surprise the rookie speedster grabbed his arm before leaping off of the building with Eobard in tow.

Terminal Velocity it the maximum falling speed for an object, it can differ based on a few factors but for two men of roughly the same size and weight it would be nearly the same, especially considering that John hadn't let go of his enemy.

Eobard may be able to run faster, but he fell at the same rate John did. John quickly took advantage of the older speedster's surprise and landed a few good hits in, bloodying Eobard's nose on the second punch before they both crashed into the ground.

Luckily for both speedsters the same force that protected them from the wind or bugs crashing into their bodies at high velocities also protected them from the fall, and instead of dying they were merely injured.

 _"Really wish I hadn't done that, everything hurts."_ was John's only thought after that insanely stupid stunt he just pulled. John felt the pain going away but that relief was quickly replaced with worry when he saw the Man in Yellow get up.

John might be fast but Eobard was faster, and this included his healing ability.

Eobard grabbed the still recovering John by the neck before slamming him into the side of a building, dazing his enemy **"I have to hand it to you, eliminating my ability to outrace you was smart John but it wasn't quite good enough. Goodbye."** Eobard's hand started vibrating before John recovered and with a snarl on his face headbutted the man.

"I don't plan on dying here." John grabbed a lose piece a rebar from the building and managed to stab Eobard in the shoulder with it, the Man in Yellow letting out a monstrous scream before he started to relentlessly beat John.

John couldn't even react properly, Eobard was hitting him so fast and with such force that any retaliation would be impossible and at this point he could only hope his enemy would let him live.

When Eobard finally stopped his assault on John his foe looked like he had been worked over for about a month, however even so Eobard could tell he was alive, John's bruises were still healing. Eobard took in a deep breath.

 **"You are more trouble than your worth John, time to die."** Eobard vibrated his hand once more, but before he could stab John with it his hand and indeed his entire body stopped vibrating, Eobard cursed, his speed had given out at a critical moment.

John saw this through his eye that wasn't swollen shut and struggled to a standing position, Eobard brandished a knife before lunging at John who decided that now was as good a time as any to run.

John raced away before the knife could stab him but his injuries limited his ability to run without extreme pain, and the teacher collapsed outside his home.

Eobard planned to follow him but he was stopped by GIDEON's voice. "Mr Wells, might I recommend letting Mr Fox live? He could be another source of energy for your plan to return home." Eobard let out a sigh, two speedster would indeed be a better energy source than just one.

Eobard felt the Speed Force return to him and started vibrating once more, **"Agreed, but if he becomes too much of a problem Mr Fox isn't necessary."** Eobard raced back to Central City, he needed to get back before his co-workers started asking questions.

John Fox was a not entirely unwelcome surprise, but Barry Allen still needed to become The Flash.

Eobard had to get back home after all.

* * *

 **John's House**

John collapsed again almost immediately upon entering his home, he could feel his injuries healing fast but even he could tell that getting the crap kicked out of him to this degree would take some time.

It took about 30 minutes for his face to heal, and by that time he was exhausted even through his augmented stamina.

John spoke the formula to turn off his speed upon getting onto his bed, starting to fall asleep almost instantly and forgetting to change out of his torn and slightly burnt clothing. _"I need to learn to ignore pain."_ was John's last thought before he finally fell asleep.

 **A/N I'm going to bed, I hope people like this chapter, ciao! also still looking for a vigilante name for John related to speed.**


	4. Family Matters

_Bit of a filler chapter, but bear with me._

 _Next one will have a bit more movement than this one_

* * *

 **University**

 _"Never thought I would heal this slowly again."_ John thought as he walked into the University, he had found that most injures he gained healed in a few hours, if not minutes, but the day after his fight with that Man in Yellow John woke up with a bit of a limp and his ribs still hurt a small bit.

 _"At least the traffic hadn't been entirely awful."_ John thought himself, he hadn't exactly been able to speed to the university. He found that running was painful no matter what speed he went and decided to use a car for the first time in a few days.

"Mr Fox, are you okay?" Jason asked, he had noticed John had a small limp when walking back into the class. "I'm fine, just had a bad fall and smashed my hip on the concrete." John assured his student before starting the lesson for the day.

John picked up a dry erase marker before writing on the whiteboard, "Can anyone here tell me what-" While going through the day's lesson he couldn't help but wonder about the Man in Yellow's existence and what it meant about his own. Despite the man's apparent attempt to kill him John had so many questions.

 _"Are there others like me? I guess that his appearance shouldn't be a surprise really.. if I have power beyond what is considered possible who is to say no one else does as well?"_ John thought, he could feel his injuries healing up as he went through his day, and at lunch break he no longer had his limp.

The day continued normally, but when he needed to start grading papers John looked around for a moment to make sure no one was a near and sped through the process in a few seconds. John turned his powers off almost immediately afterwards, during the day he had noticed that at random moments the world slowed down, usually when someone threw an object or dropped something.

John had a small grin as he finished up for the day and began walking towards the exit of the building at 3:22 P.M, but before he could reach outside John suddenly found himself in a crushing embrace and heard a woman lightly sobbing. _"Oh no..."_ John thought, how did they find out? He had asked Dr Anderson to _not_ inform them of what had happened.

"You're an idiot John! Why didn't you tell us what happened?!" John heard his older sister Claire shout at him, while she might of sounded angry the tears he felt hitting his shoulder and tightening embrace while he tried to escape told him all he needed to know.

John looked around and upon seeing his brother John looked at Shane with wide eyes and mouthed "help me", but his older brother betrayed him by shaking his head.

"I'm not getting in between this." Shane said and Claire finally let him go before wiping her eyes, Shane walked over and slapped the back of John's head "Ouch." John said as he glared at his older brother. Shane just shook his head "Dad and Mom were at my place when we got the news and I thought Dad was going to have a heart attack John; you got hit directly by _lightning_ , that is the sort of thing you tell your family." Shane said to his brother.

John let out a sigh.. he hadn't called them because nothing had happened. Why worry his family over something that had already occurred and he was fine?

"Alright.. I'll be sure to call you the next time I fall into a coma." John said to his siblings, Shane pinched the bridge of his nose while Claire let out a groan.

"I'm kidding! I get it. But how did you know? I asked Dr. Anderson to not call and worry you." John said, and Shane raised an eyebrow. "Jay-lee called us three days ago John.. not Anderson. He was concerned that you might be affected more than you let on... you are okay right?"

John hesitated to answer that question before nodding but Claire took advantage of that moment, "You hesitated John... what is it?" John looked to the ceiling in resignation.

"Nothing bad Claire I promise; just a bit strange." John assured his sister, Claire looked at him for a moment before letting it go. "Weird how?" Shane asked and John looked down before letting a large breath out, "I'll tell you back at my place, but I doubt you will believe me at face value." John said, and his siblings looked at one another before frowning.

"Okay.. lead on then." Claire said, and the siblings went to their cars before driving to John's house.

* * *

 **John's Place**

"Can I get you anything?" John said as the three walked in. "You're stalling. Shane said.

Claire looked around with a raised eyebrow, while John wasn't necessarily a clean freak only his bedroom was remotely close to the seeming tornado that went through his living room. "What happened here?" Claire asked.

"That is... related to what happened to me." John said as they went to sit down.

John clasped his hands together and looked at them in thought before he started to speak, "So... hypothetically speaking, if a person had something happen to them and become... more than human, super powers and all because of it would you trust them?" John asked.

"Hypothetically speaking? I suppose I would ask for proof, and they don't have any I would call someone to help them if it got dangerous." Shane answered.

"Of course... and if it was your own brother, who knew how ridiculous such a thing sounded, made such a claim anyways?" John questioned the two.

"Then I would say what happened might of affected him more than he thinks." She said with a frown. John nodded before he got up and walked to turn on the lights, "3X2(9YZ)4A" He said aloud, and both Shane and Claire saw the lights suddenly turn off as a bolt of lighting arced from the bulbs and hit their brother.

"John?!" Shane shouted in alarm as he got up from his seat, but to his and Claire's shock John seemed unconcerned and looked at his older siblings calmly while he was struck. The lightning disappeared as quickly as it appeared before the lights turned back on and the two saw their younger sibling standing without any sign that he had just be struck once again by lightning.

Claire recovered first, "John? Are you okay?" She asked in a concerned tone, and her sibling smirked "I am better than alright... don't freak out okay?" John said to his siblings, and upon getting a slow nod from both of them he suddenly _moved_ , they merely saw a blur with some streaks of yellow lightning and heard an electric sound while the room was quickly cleaned up.

Shane and Claire felt a strong wind while this was happening and suddenly John was back, "Well... I guess that answers that." Shane said in a quiet voice as the two looked at their little brother in shock.

"So... you are fast?" Claire said, and John nodded in confirmation. "Yeah... I top out at around Mach 1.5, tested it a few days ago." Shane raised an eyebrow, "How were you not torn apart by that speed?"

John shrugged at that, "The more important question to me is how there was no sonic boom after I went faster than sound, my clothes didn't turn to ash either, its like they were protected."

"I am more interested about what you are going to do now." A new voice said, John wished he could of broken the news to this new individual on his own terms like with Shane and Claire, but apparently the universe had conspired against him on that. John turned to look at his parents.

"You really need to learn to close your blinds son." Andrew said to his son while he stood next to Caroline Fox, they had seen their son soon move at impossible speeds from the window. While his father shut the blinds John didn't see and fear or shock from them, he only saw his parent's curious and patient expression as they waited for John to answer Andrew while they moved to sit down.

"I... umm." John fumbled over his words a bit.. he hadn't really expected them to be so casual about the fact that their youngest child could run faster than sound, instead it was like when he was trying to decide what to go to college for and they were just waiting for John to make up his mind.

"No need to decide right now J, but... how did this happen?" Caroline said while gesturing to the now suddenly cleaned room, and John took that as a _get out of the hard life question_ free card.

John sat down on the only single chair in the room while his parents took the love seat and his siblings took the couch. "Well... it isn't all that exciting really, I was just writing some equations to kill time before the day ended. I can't really explain it after that. I accidentally thought one of them out loud when reading it and then everything kind of just... slowed down before that lightning hit me." John explained to his family.

"I got struck by it for what felt like a minute and when it finally let up I was blasted into a wall. I apparently I hit my head pretty hard because my vision started to darken before waking up in that hospital." John continued.

"Has anything else happened recently?" Andrew asked, and John took a moment before he answered. "Yeah... but, I don't really want to talk about it." John was thankful when his dad didn't pursue it any further, John had already dropped a huge bomb on them by even admitting he was like this now.

The Fox family sat in silence for a moment before John looked at his T.V, "Want to watch anything?" He asked.

"Doc Martin." Andrew and Claire answered, while Caroline and Shane said "Walking Dead." at the same time before just sitting and looking at each other. John placed his head in his palm at the split answer... why did he expect that to go perfectly?

"Star Wars it is then." John said before getting up and putting A New Hope in the CD player, _"At least this is something we_ all _agree on."_ John thought to himself as the beginning text scroll happened.

"~Nothin but Star Wars... Episode 4~" Claire sang out, "Please stop singing." Shane said to her. "How are you doing financially John?" Their father asked."Its... Detroit dad, I'm fine for now... what about you Shane?"

" _He changed the target of that question quickly."_ Andrew thought to himself, Detroit didn't have the greatest stable rate of employment. Shane responded to John's question with a shrug. "Fine... Queen Consolidated was mostly untouched by that earthquake and I don't live in the Glades. I distinctly remember calling when it happened so everyone knew I was okay though." He said while looking at John accusingly.

"This is going to be another 'Metal to the Petal' thing isn't it?" John said more than questioned... make one mistake when you are like five years old and it follows you _forever_.

"Lets just watch the movie you three... look, droids." Their mother said about one second before a trooper repeated almost the exact same words.

"We have seen this way too many times." John said with a grin. "Not until the millionth time we watch it." Claire responded in a semi-joking voice as they sat, and John was content to just spend some time together once again, they lived all over the place.

Claire lived in Keystone, Shane was in Starling, and his parents had moved from Detroit to Coast City years ago. The fact that they got here at such a close time was amazing to John.

* * *

 **A/N wow this took awhile to get out, bit of a bridge chapter**

 **Introduced John's family here and had him tell them about all this stuff, he isn't really against doing that.**

 **This is definitely a filler, but the n** **ext one will be a bit different.**

 **Also at this point the story takes place in early August of 2013, about four months before Barry returns from Starling City and Particle Accelerator turns on.**


	5. Short Straws

**John's house**

"It was nice to see you again son, and please do your old, feeble dad a favor and call us if you get hurt like that again." Andrew looked at John as they walked outside, putting on an act of shaking like an old man in a cartoon. "You aren't _that_ old dad." John said with a small laugh.

Andrew smiled before he stopped his act, looking at his son with a serious expression. "I know you like to keep your problems close to the heart John but even if something like that passes without any issue we would still like to know. Figuring out that you had been in a coma from someone else had all kinds of bad questions going through my head." John couldn't keep his eyes on his father for too long before looking away guiltily, "Alright."

"You made mom cry too." Claire piped in, and John just placed his head in his palm, exasperation seeping into his voice "I thought you were past the whole 'guilt-trip John' stage of the day." Caroline looked at her daughter with a frown, "I thought we agreed to _not_ speak of that."

Claire unlocked her car door before opening it, "Oooh... right. He kinda deserves it for not telling us thought. Bye!" John shook his head as his sister drove off, probably going a bit faster than one should be going on this street.

John's parents hugged him as they left "Be careful." Caroline said to her youngest son, not looking away before she got a nod; she and Andrew got in their car and left. John noticed that Shane still hadn't left and turned to look at his older brother.

"So... you didn't really answer dad's question about how you were doing money-wise." John shrugged, "He was already worried about this whole coma thing, didn't want to worry him more." Shane let out a long sigh upon hearing that.

"Did you not hear him _just_ say to tell us if something was wrong?" Shane's tone was a bit condescending, but John didn't really blame him for it; keeping his problems to himself was something John had been doing for a long time, it would be hard to break that habit immediately.

"A lot of things have been thrown on my plate in the last few day."

"Fair enough." Shane said as he walked to his car; John had noticed they were all rentals and it made sense, every single family member of his lived far away from Detroit and probably took a plane or something to get here so fast.

 _"It'd explain how they got here at almost the same time at least, Starling City is almost two thousand miles away after all."_ John waved as his older brother left before walking back inside his house.

* * *

 **1 month later, Abandoned Airfield**

Ever since that day John had been learning about what his power did to him while living his life like normal.

In order to try and understand what his body was going through when he turned his powers on John had read a few textbooks on medicine, physiology, and biology to figure out ways to test his body and see any changes.

John had discovered that when his powers were active all the cells in his body that he could test on his own were forcibly mutated to contain great amounts of electricity, and even when removed they stayed that way until he turned his powers off.

Granted he was by no means an expert in that field, and the knowledge kept leaving him shortly after he gained it even after a month. John found that he apparently would not of done well in that field, even before he got his powers that had been a difficult subject compared to everything else.

 _"Guess I wasn't meant to be a doctor."_ John thought after having to speed read through the books for the _fifth_ time in about thirty minutes, he had been looking at the results when he entirely forgot what _any_ of it meant.

It was frustrating to say the least, like he was a comedic genius who lost all ability to be funny when asked to tell a joke.

During one of his "training days" he had tried to replicate some of what the other speedster had done during their confrontation, it didn't go that well; his attempts to vibrate like the man in yellow only resulted in occasional bouts of vomiting from his stomach being shaken so fast and his speed hadn't increased that much at all.

When John first gained his powers he could run Mach 1.5 at his fastest, and after two months that had been increased to Mach 1.6 when pushing himself to the limit. _"The other guy went_ way _faster than that"_ John thought as he looked at the Speed Sensor's results, if going Mach 1.5 had only made the Man in Yellow taking a few seconds to catch up, even when he had a head start, then running at Mach 1.6 would have similar results.

While he wasn't in any hurry to fight the man again John didn't want to be overwhelmed so easily if he ever came back, he had only escaped because the Man in Yellow seemed to have an issue with his powers before he could kill John, if that hadn't happened at such a critical moment...

Picking up the machine John raced home before looking over his mail, he had been making ends meet when his family had visited but now? Not so much. Hell, Shane had even told him before "movie time" had ended that if things started looking bad he could always crash at his place in Starling City, just until he got back on his feet of course.

John's new diet requirements weren't helping things either, he originally spent a manageable amount on food but he needed a whole lot more with his "speed metabolism" being a factor, he ate everything that _could_ be eaten in his kitchen after shutting off his powers for the first time.

His his house cost a lot of money to keep despite being on the small side, and as he looked at the bills John frowned, the electricity and water bill had gone up recently, as had the taxes.

John had been thinking about moving to a more affordable part of Detroit to compensate and had a few options available; he was even informed by the realtors that his house would probably be bought almost as fast as it was available, apparently they had a family that was looking for a home in the area and his was quaint enough.

"Always look at the bright side." John told himself, at least he still had his job.

* * *

As he walked into the University the next day John's attention was stolen by a co-worker of his, "Boss Man wants to see you, he's in your office by the way." John raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know why?" The man shrugged, "Nope." John sighed before moving on, turning his head back he got his colleague's attention, "Thanks." The man waved in acknowledgement as he walked away, getting ready for his own class.

Opening the door to his office John greeted the Superintendent, he was an older man with graying hair and glasses, he was bit on the heavy side but not particularly large. He looked up from a book he had been reading while he waited, "Ah.. good morning Mr. Fox." John moved forwards, extending his hand in greeting which was accepted.

"Nice to see you too sir." The man nodded before looking to the floor, a frown carving its way onto his face. "Do you wanna know why I've called ya here?" He asked as he looked back up.

John felt a pang of nervousness at that question, ".. To be honest, I've got a feeling I know why." Abrams sighed, a weight seemingly setting on his shoulders at John's response. "You're a great teacher John, the kids have _never_ filed anything resembling a complaint about you... well... there are those who complain that you never give up on them, but aside from them? _Nobody_." John took a seat as Abrams continued, being in a chair seemed like a good idea right about now.

"I'm really sorry son, but..." John looked at the hesitation in the man before him, "I've been fired." Snapping his head up with alarming speed Abrams nearly shouted, "No, that is _not_ the correct word, don't ever think that's what this is." John was taken aback at that reaction, blinking in surprise as the Superintendent collected himself.

"Getting fired would have been me calling you into _my_ officer and maybe a screaming match depending on how one takes it. You have only been a good part of this institute Johnny. This isn't you being _fired_ , this is you drawing the short end of the stick despite all our efforts. We just don't have the funds we used to, I'm sorry."

The two sat in silence, John processing and Abrams waiting, John let out a breath of air as he shook his head, "Well... this certainly changes a few things." Abrams blinked in confusion for a moment, he had kinda been expecting a different reaction. "Do ya... need anything? A recommendation? Anything at all. I don't want you to leave this building with nothing to show for it except a box of crap."

John looked at his boss.. well... former boss now. "Thanks for the offer, but I do have some options... my brother works at Queen Consolidated and last I heard they were hiring." Abrams arched a brow, "Starling City is quite far from here."

"Yeah.. not the best but I can't afford the stay really and... my family visiting last month made me realize just how far I have been from them, and how much I miss being nearby." Abrams nodded at that, during the past month everyone had been looking out for John, despite what the doctors said he was hit by _lightning_ and then went into a freaking _coma_ , no test results claiming he was fine had been good enough.

"If you're sure..."

"I'm certain."

Abrams took in a breath before getting out of his seat, before leaving the room he turned to face John. "Its been good havin ya here." A small smile graced John's features, waving to Abrams as he left.

Letting out a sigh John pulled out his phone from his pocket and punched in Shane's number as he moved to leave the building. _"I don't have anything worth keeping with me here. Well.. a few cards."_ Activating his powers John turned around, racing into his officer and collecting the few cards he kept around before moving back to his original position in the blink of an eye.

* * *

 **Starling City, Shane's house, 1 hour later**

Letting out a groan as he opened the front door Shane lumbered into his abode, looking at the closest couch and gravitating towards it like the soft material was putting him under a spell.

Flopping onto the material Shane closed his eyes, " _Night shifts are brutal."_ He thought to himself, he started to drift of to dreamland, hoping to just forget about his worries and see what fantasies his mind can conjure up, but he was stopped when he heard a noise in his kitchen followed by a quick stream of unintelligible words he could only imagine were swears.

Picking himself up from the alluring comfort of the couch, Shane slowly moved towards the source of the disturbance. He wasn't in any condition to fight any robbers, but he also wasn't gonna _let_ someone take his food.

Picking up a bat he kept in the hallway for home protection the oldest child of the Fox family opened the kitchen door, blinking in shock when he saw John was there, having eaten the entirely of what looked like 2 large peanut butter containers and holding _all_ the bread buns he had in his arms, John himself froze in place like a deer caught in the headlights.

"John... when did you get here?" Shane put the baseball bat down, no longer finding it necessary... for now.

"A few minutes before you did..."

"Why are you eating all my food?" John cringed at that question. "My metabolism is... leagues above the norm after speeding around."

Shane took in a deep breath before shaking his head in exasperation, "What happened?"

Looking away in shame John mumbled out his answer, "Detroit."

"Gonna need a bit more than that."

John sighed before explaining everything, from his money problems to his not-firing, from the way he hesitated Shane could tell this bothered him, his brother had always tried to be independent, trying to not be a burden despite people offering help, and to have that taken from him?

"Its no problem if you crash here John, just get the stuff you need and, well, if you don't feel like going back to Detroit..." John put the buns down, careful as to not drop any of them on the floor.

"I planned on selling that house anyways, I just need a few boxes and I'll drive back here." Shane shrugged, "Go for it, should be some in the garage."

John thanked him before zipping away, and almost imperceptible figure suddenly passing by his window and on the way to Detroit.

 _"He's gonna have waaaay to much fun with that at my expense."_ Shane could just see it now, a serious meeting of some sort and suddenly he is wearing a pink shirt, clown nose, and bow-tie.

Shane moved to his room before laying down, finally succumbing to sleep.

* * *

 **A/N This is a location transition chapter, I really needed to get John from Detroit to Starling City. Speaking of which I really hate the conflicting sources as to where Star(ling) and Central City are in the USA, but one source said roughly Seattle for Star(ling) City so I am sticking to that.**

 **Even with the time skip this still takes place about a month before Barry appears, but it won't be too many chapters before the future hero is introduced.**


	6. Close Encounters of a Verdant Kind

_This is the last chapter that will focus on moving locations, after this if anything like that does happen I will make a reference to it._

 _Next one... well... The timeline might be a bit messed up but I planned to have this chapter be a few weeks before Barry Allen arrives at Starling City, so take that for what you will._

* * *

 **Close to Starling City, Night Time.**

 **John**

"Meow...Meow...Meow" John took in a slow, deep breath to calm himself, his cat had been meowing at almost everything they moved past that it could see from the passenger seat window, every tree, _every car_.

The move from Detroit to Starling had taken almost an entire day to pull off even with super speed, but John managed to move everything he actually needed or which held sentimental value from his place to Shane's; all that remained after he last run back to Detroit had been his car and cat.

After getting the two he had opted to just drive back with Jake in the vehicle instead of moving him manually, it didn't seem like that great of an idea to try speeding along with him, especially considering just how freaked out the little guy would be and the risk that the car might wiggled out of his arms at such high speeds.

On some level regret was bubbling up in his mind at the decision he had made, the drive from Detroit to Starling wasn't exactly a quick one and Jake had been meowing almost nonstop the whole time; despite the cat's remarkable determination to being annoying he didn't want the guy to potentially become roadkill. John moved his right hand to the cat's head and Jake found the base of his ears being softly scratched; the animal stopped his noises almost immediately and leaned in to the attention, purring as he enjoying the pleasant feeling as much as possible.

The driver placed his wayward hand back on the wheel after a few seconds, knowing that the cat would inevitably start up again. Rolling his eyes once the cat started up John repeated two words in his head over and over again like a mantra, _"Almost there, almost there, almost there."_

Seeing a sign informing him that Starling City was 2 miles away made him sigh in relief as he spared a glance at his car's remaining gas, somewhat to his surprise it was nearing empty and he wasn't all that sure he could make it to Shane's house on the fumes he had.

As he entered Starling City John kept a lookout both for a gas station and on his fuel reserves, thankfully he only had to search for a few minutes. Looking around he could tell it wasn't exactly in the best part of the city, in fact it looked to be one of the few sections of the Glades to not be hit by the earthquake; it wasn't damaged so there wasn't really any reason to try and update it, city management was apparently content to just leave it alone.

Looking around the area he saw a notable amount of homeless around the area, _"You'd think something would change after that whole Undertaking business."_ Seeing such obvious signs of poverty made a frown find its way on John's face, _"I guess i'm not really leaving Detroit."_

Pulling into the station he got out and bought 10 dollars worth of gas, and as he waited for the refuel to complete John felt his metabolism catching up to him again; while he hadn't used his speed on the way back from Detroit he did use it when getting there, not to mention the couple of times moving stuff before he got his car and Jake.

Making his way to the store he was suddenly bumped into, "Sorry." John saw someone in a hoodie walking away, probably a kid from their height with a lock of silver hair peaking out from underneath their hood. Waving it off he continued into the store, but as he browsed for something to buy John felt something noted something was.. off; on a hunch he checked his pockets, finding them to be empty.

His head snapped up and he quickly exited the building, looking for the little thief and caught their eyes, he saw them widen in surprise just before they made a break for it. _"Sonova-"_ John chased after the fleeing thief, even without his powers he was still fairly quick and managed to keep a steady pace with them, actually moving just a bit faster. He saw them duck into a back alley in an attempt to escape. _"You're not getting away that easily!"_

Turning the corner John saw his target a few yards in front of him, running towards an access ladder in an attempt to escape onto the rooftops, "Get back here!" His echoing words only got a brief look back by the thief as they continued trying to escape. The two ran as fast as their legs would allow, however his longer stride turned out to be the key to victory as he closed the distance between the two of them.

Getting right next to the silver haired thief John grabbed their arm, to his surprise a feminine yelp escaped the hooded thief as they tripped and fell to the ground, hoodie falling from _her_ head in the process. John let out a breath and reached his hand towards the girl, intending to help the girl up, but as his hand moved halfway to her the hairs on his neck raised. Abruptly he stopped moving, his hand slowly pulled back before raising both in the air, "I have the worst luck..."

"Back away from her." The voice behind him was cold and promised pain if he didn't do exactly as instructed. Looking down at the girl John mouthed a plea for help, hoping the thief wouldn't let him be shot.

He wasn't exactly sure he could go through his speed formula without being heard and taking an arrow through the back would be a crappy way for his day to end. Slowly backing up he turned to the source of the voice and saw an archer dressed in a verdant suit. _"I have been in Starling City for 2 hour tops and I bump into their resident vigilante... kill me now."_ His head lowered a bit as his whole body seemed to slouch, his exasperation evident to the other two in the alley.

* * *

Standing on the rooftops was a man, many know of his reputation, a verdant vigilante who punishes those that have failed the city they call home. Overlooking the city was The Arrow, formerly known as The Hood, and known by only those he trusts as Oliver Queen.

Oliver was looking after a specific person in Starling, someone who meant a great deal to the man that was his brother during his first year on that hellish Island and he had promised to protect.

Rose Wilson, 12 year old daughter of Slade Wilson, didn't even know about her family's guardian angel; the mugger that tried to target her two streets back did though, as did the scumbag who had a penchant for targeting younger girls.

Those criminals never even saw him coming, one moment they were about to take advantage of the seemingly defenseless girl and the next, they were on a trip to the hospital with several broken bones or a missing tooth; Oliver found that rarely did a criminal try targeting her again when they got out of either the hospital or served their sentence after he got through with them.

Oliver saw a white and yellow 2000s Toyota Corolla pull into a nearby gas station, the driver got out and starting refueling his car. This itself wasn't unusual, what caught Oliver's attention was when Rose started to slowly gravitating towards the man. From the rooftops Oliver clearly saw Rose bump into him before moving away, the man continued into the store but it wasn't long before he was outside again, clearly looking around for something.

While this was happening Oliver prepped himself, he knew there was about to be a chase and once it started Oliver moved, silent as the night and keeping an eye on them from a distance. Rose had almost assuredly pick-pocketed the man and was definitely at fault, but he wanted to ensure both parties didn't get hurt... or worse.

He had planned to stay back and hope Rose return what she stole, but when he saw her trip to the ground with a rather large man hovering over her his rational thought was thrown out the door. Maneuvering down to street level at breakneck speeds Oliver drew an arrow from the quiver, nicking it onto the bowstring and promptly leveled it at the man's back.

"I have the worst luck..." Oliver raised an eyebrow at that statement, he hadn't made enough noise for the common person to hear it yet this guy froze before he said a word. "Back away from her." To his credit the man did exactly as instructed, and upon seeing him the man slouched a bit in frustration.

"Get up." Oliver said to the girl, but with a softer voice, she too did as instructed. "What happened." Oliver asked the two once she was on her feet.

Rose looked at the other man, he hadn't moved and still had his hands up in surrender. She spoke up first, "I stole his wallet... guess I wasn't as sneaky as I thought." Oliver looked at the man, he seemed to be more than a little nervous about the situation he was in, specifically keeping his eyes on the man in green. _"I guess my reputation precedes me."_

"And what were you doing?" The man furrowed his brow at the question, then visibly realization what The Arrow was concerned about. "I was trying to get my money back, nothing else."

The three stood in silence for a few seconds when suddenly they heard a stomach growl. Oliver saw Rose's embarrassed expression in the instant before she looked at the now intensely interesting ground.

"Well... guess we know why you stole my wallet." The man said in amusement, Rose bit her lip and shyly gave it back to the man. Oliver saw him check the contents of it, briefly seeing his ID.

 _"John Fox..."_ Oliver knew the names of a few of the managers he had worked with during the reconstruction efforts and the name Fox brought up memories of a rather dedicated one. _"Guess he's related to Shane."_ John checked the cash and nodded his head before putting it away. Clearing his throat The Arrow got their attention. "I apologize Mr. Fox." John shrugged. "Its fine... that would've looked far worse from another perspective." Rose cocked her head as the two spoke, _"Looked worse? How?"_

"How did you know his name?" Rose asked the man in green, but The Arrow was prevented from answering as John did it for him. "He probably saw it on my ID." Rose hmm'd, _"Impressive."_ Oliver thought to himself, the man was fairly perceptive. "Not to be rude, but I do need to get going..." Oliver didn't give either of them an answer and sudden shot a grappling arrow into a nearby rooftop, John and Rose jumped as he made his sudden exit. "I'll make sure she gets home safely." The Arrow said from the rooftops.

The two found themselves left alone in the alley, John started back the way they came with the assurance that the Arrow would watch out for her, "Mister.." John looked back at her."Yes?" The girl looked a little guilty as she pulled out a 20 dollar bill, "I kinda took this from you." Rose saw an amused smile appear on his face. "I know. Buy yourself some food with it." John continued to his car, but before he could exit the alley he heard her response. "Thank you!"

Getting into his now refueled car John made his way to Shane's house, thankful that he hadn't been used as a pin cushion for Starling City's vigilante his first day there. _"Wait... why was he in the area in the first place?"_ From what John had seen on the news The Hood, well, now The Arrow, mostly went after White Collar crimes, rich guys who try to cheat their employees for profit or similar stuff. _"Maybe I'm overthinking it, he was probably just in the area. He has been going after more and more street crimes after all."_ John stopped that thought process once he saw he was coming up on Shane's house, finally done moving from his house minutes before the clock hit 8.

Super Speeds really came in handy at times.

* * *

 **Shane's**

Searching the cabinets in his kitchen Shane found a third empty cereal container, with a sigh he recycled it, _"John really needs to find someone else's food to eat."_ Looking at just three speed incidents and the near mountain of food John had eaten he could see how it would be an issue money wise. _"Can't he get some calorie bars or something?"_

"Meow." Shane felt his cat, Elwood, rub against his leg. Raising an eyebrow he looked at the cat's food bowl, it was empty and it had been some time since his last meal. _"Four mouths to feed when John brings Jake."_ Just after finishing that thought Shane heard a car pull into his driveway, he had no doubt it was his little brother, " _He_ had _mentioned being uncomfortable about the thought of speeding with Jake in his arms."_

When the door opened John was indeed standing there with Jake, the little guy almost leapt from his arms once Elwood entered his sight, the two cats were litter mates, Shane and John had briefly been living in an rented home together a few years back when they adopted the two, and when they went moved out had taken one.

Seeing the two interact like they used to brought a smile to Shane, _"Good to know they didn't forget."_ John moved into the living room while the cats ran off to play, "Aren't they full of energy?" Shane shrugged a bit, "Guess they're excited to see each other."

"Did you run into any trouble on the way here?" Shane knew the Glades weren't exactly the best place, that earthquake hadn't made it any better either. John briefly hesitated, but took in a breath before answering "Well... I ran into your vigilante, does that count as trouble?"

Shane's eyes widened, "What happened?"

"Well... I was running low on gas and-"

"-Not that, what happened to the John that didn't even tell his family about a coma and what did you do to his body?" Shane couldn't keep a straight face at John's glaring eyes.

" _Anyways_ , so I decided to not risk it and pulled into the first-" John continued to tell his brother about the mugging and the surprise visit from the Arrow. "Seems like he was close by, that could have turned out reaaally bad for you."

"I seem to be a bit unlucky, maybe I now have anti-luck for surviving a bolt of lightning. " John offered, Shane shook his head as his brother once again causally mentioned being stuck directly by lightning, deciding to not go on that topic Shane changed the subject. "So have you thought about the issues of a job? Your house? You aren't gonna live here for free forever ya know."

"We'll figure it out tomorrow, for now I'd like to sleep. This has been an exhausting day." Shane chucked, "I guess even a lightning man can run out of juice." John let out a long, suffering sigh at his brother's words.

"Hate you." Sooo many excuses would now be bullcrap.

"Love you too little bro."

* * *

 **A/N Hurk I needed to cut this chapter off here, next one is already in the works. Next chapter there will be yet another timeskip but only a few weeks, the plot has to actually get going at some point.**

 **I also apologize if this chapter is boring but I wanted to show that John is having to move his entire life, he can't afford to live on his own because his Speedster Metabolism is too expensive to sustain along with a house/bills/whatever, those calorie bars that the show have are needed badly I'd imagine to stop Barry from eating himself into debt.**

 **300 tacos every day is expensive...**

 **Also, if you think Oliver overreacted a bit... imagine your daughter, or your friends daughter, is on the ground with a man standing over them. John had been offering his hand as a "need some help up?" thing, but... to Oliver... he saw a man standing over his friend's fallen daughter and reaching towards her.**

 **Also thank you to the guys (and gals) that look at this story, you're the best and I would like to hear your thoughts on it, good and bad.**

 **So anyways, clearing things up time! (unless I forgot I mentioned it before) John is the youngest of the three Fox siblings, with Shane being the oldest and Claire being in the middle.**


	7. The Scientist Pt 1

_Might be some story event inconsistencies with the show, but it is a fanfic after all._

 _Also, I'll be opening up a can of worms in this chapter. You'll know it when you read it._

* * *

It had been a little over a month since John finished moving into Shane's place in Starling City, during that time his former house had been put on the market and thankfully it had some very interested buyers. Hopefully, one would be contacting him soon and offer to take it off his hands, however, he still ran into the problem of getting a new job.

Shane's hospitality was great and all, but with his occasionally unusual eating habits John didn't want to just laze around all day and possibly eat his brother into debt, doing that to _himself_ had been enough.

Thankfully, after sending out more than a few applications he had been hired by Queen Consolidated's Applied Science Division. Apparently one of their warehouses was in need of a few more people after some of their employees were sadly lost during the Earthquake.

Of course, being the new guy meant he was given some of the... _less desirable_ tasks, and unsurprisingly the job of taking inventory was dumped on him. So far he had fully documented five rows that had anywhere from chemical containers holding God knows what inside them to some parts for a new fridge model. John _really_ wanted to scream after seeing just how much he still had to get done.

 _"I've been here for hours haven't even gotten half of the list done?! Why do they need all this crap?"_ The speedster _desperately_ wanted to get the job done faster, but he couldn't, there were cameras almost _everywhere_ and the recording would raise a few questions he didn't want to answer when their new employee zipped around the area with lightning coming off him.

Somehow that man in yellow had found him in the middle of nowhere and John didn't want to risk someone else finding out. _"One ass-kicking was enough."_ He thought with a grimace.

After finally finishing up he started to the only area he would really have a chance to super speed, but sadly it was the one place where doing so to speed taking inventory up wouldn't really help; the area in question kept some of the heavier equipment and fewer security cameras than anywhere else, but it was a wide open space that had easily visible items.

The lax security had been concerning to John, and after bringing it up to his manager those concerns were put to rest. Apparently, the security hub was in a room right next to the warehouse with a window looking into it, they would easily see if someone was trying to loot or break into the place from the doors across from it and respond accordingly.

John entered the room and waved at the guard, who tilted his head in acknowledgment before going back to reading a sports magazine, keeping one eye on the cameras while doing so.

He turned to his right and saw everything in a neat line, "Turbine, Drink Unmixer, Humongous Printer, Tech Table.." John checked off ever correlating item as he went by them, _thankfully_ this part of the task was easy, finished up within minutes.

Finally finished with the task, John turned in and confirmed everything was in order, his shift ended shortly thereafter, driving back to Shane's place and relieved to finally be done for the day.

John saw his older brother's car was in the driveway when finally arrived, Shane apparently had gotten home before his little speedster brother could, and braced himself for the basically inevitable quips.

Sure enough, there he was, watching T.V with a smug expression as his younger brother shut the door.

"Not a word," John warned.

"I wasn't gonna say anything." He said in a teasingly.

John swore he could _see_ the lies leave Shane's mouth.

 _ **=================================EKM====================================**_

When the report got to Central City that a strange, unexplained robbery had gone down at one of the largest businesses in America she had made her excuses and found her way to first train to Starling City... well, the second train at least, she missed the first one. Now she stood on the sidewalk with a hastily packed suitcase, and her clothes were soaked, and it was raining, and she had no umbrella.

Looking up and down the street, she thankfully saw a taxi cab incoming, "Hey!" She shouted as she attempted to wave it down, but it didn't stop and actually hit a puddle, splashing almost every part of her with rainwater. As it dripped down her hair the woman let out a huff.

"Typical..."

To her surprise and relief, a yellow car pulled to a stop in front of her, the window rolled down to reveal a guy looking at her inquisitively.

"Do you... need a ride?" The man asked her, he had seen her waving down the taxi but, this being Starling City, the driver had just brushed her off and kept going, splashing water onto her in the process.

She just looked at damp clothes, "If you don't mind me getting your seats wet, yeah." The guy had an amused look on his face, "It'll be fine, this isn't exactly a brand new car." He gestured to the passenger seat before he saw her luggage and popped the trunk open.

"Thank you sooo much." She said after packing the suitcase away and getting in the passenger seat.

"No problem, where do you need me to drop you off?" The man said as he started down the street.

"Queen Consolidated's Science Division building, do you know how to get there?"

The man had a look of surprise, "Yeah, I work there, are... you a new employee?"

"Wow, lucky me, umm... no, I'm a Forensics Scientist at the CCPD."

That set off alarm bells in the man's head like few other things could, a Crime Scene Investigator needed to go to his workplace? What the hell happened there?

"Huh... soo, what's your name? I'm John Fox." The woman looked at him for a moment before answering, "Barry Allen."

"Nice to meet you, Barry."

The two sat in relative silence as John continued to their mutual destination, questions about what he might find getting more and more prominent in his mind as they got closer. It was only a short ride and soon enough the building was in their sight, the flashing of police lights did little to calm John as the car came to a stop, popping the trunk open again.

"Thanks!" Barry said as she fumbled to get out of the car and get her stuff, in just a few seconds John heard her nearly slamming the trunk back down before bolting to the crime scene, he had to wonder what happened to get her so excited about this... John just sat in his car for a moment, he saw Barry slip in after flashing a badge at one of the officers, walking with another into the warehouse.

John tapped his hand on the steering wheel for a few seconds before getting out of the car and starting towards the entrance, the mystery was killing him.

"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to stay behind the line." The officer said as John walked up to it, "Of course... but, do you know what happened?" John was looking into the warehouse as he said that, but he did see the Officer shake his head, "I can't reveal any information about an ongoing investigation to the public, sorry."

John let out a frustrated sigh but didn't press any further, from his position he could see that the area being investigated was where the bigger items were generally stored, and he could see that one was missing...

"YOU'RE PROBABLY LOOKING FOR A CENTRIFUGE!" John shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth to carry his voice further, there were three people inside the warehouse that he could see, one was Barry, and when the other two turned around after hearing him he saw what he guessed was a Detective... and Oliver Queen, the guy who was basically his boss.

The detective started speaking to Queen before pointing right at John, waving at another Officer to retrieve him. _"Oh boy..."_

 _ **=================================EKM====================================**_

Barry unbuckled her seat belt _right_ after John stopped his car, getting her suitcase out of the thankfully opened trunk, in her excitement, she _might've_ used a bit too much force on the door, as it slammed shut she flinched. _"Whoops..."_ Barry thought to herself just before she took off towards the tape.

"Hold on ma'am, this is a crime scene.." An officer said to her, "I know, I'm a Forensics Investigator... uhh, hold on." Barry set her suitcase down and pulled her ID out of one of the pouches, showing it to the guard. He looked at it for a brief moment before handing it back.

"What's a Central City CSI doing all the way in Starling?" An older man questioned, he was a bit scruffier and was wearing the stereotypical detective's suit and tie getup.

"Umm, we had a similar case in Central, they sent me to see if it was committed by the same guy," Barry said, the Detective's eyes scrunched up before he shook his head, "Alright then, any help we can get is fine by me," The man started walking into the warehouse, leaving Barry standing there in shock as he bought her fib. The man turned around, "I'm Detective Lance by the way, and you are?"

"Barry..." She started, and Lance gestured as if to say "Barry what?"

"ah, Allen." Barry finished, the two walked a little further into the building before Lance spoke up again, "We got a call about a robbery a few hours ago, but it was dismissed at first considered how many we usually get concerning Queen Industries on a nearly daily basis, so far we know that an item is missing but don't know what it was." Lance pointed at an empty pallet a short distance from them, next to a bunch of filled ones.

Before Barry could ask any questions, another voice chimed in, "Hello Officers." Detective Lance let a heavy sigh out as the two turned to the voice.

On her part, Barry had a little scream in her head once she saw the voice was _Oliver Queen_. "And who are you?" He asked the new face, the fan girl inside her froze Barry for a second before she took control again, "I'm Barry Allen, Forensics Scientist for the Central City Police Department." Oliver reached out and shook her hand, he raised an eyebrow at how enthusiastic she shook it... "Oliver Queen," Barry let out a little laugh "I know who you are Mr. Queen." The detective cleared his throat to get their attention, but before he could speak the three heard someone shouting.

"YOU'RE PROBABLY LOOKING FOR A CENTRIFUGE!"

Lance and Oliver turned to the source of the voice, seeing a man standing behind the Police Line cupping his hands around his mouth, Barry turned a second later, "John?"

"You know this guy?" Lance asked the newcomer, "Not really... but he did give me a ride." Lance got the attention of another officer. "Go get the guy standing behind the line and bring him to me."

"Yes sir."

John was brought to them, standing about five feet from the three.

"You don't happen to be related to Shane Fox, do you?" Oliver said as he waggled his finger at John, who just groaned in response, "Yeah... I'm his younger brother."

"Huh, small world."

"Now that everyone is acquainted with each other, you said something about a centrifuge?" Lance said, getting the conversation back on track.

"Oh, yeah, I took inventory a little over a week ago and from the looks of it one of our centrifuges is missing," John explained to the Detective.

"It should the second one from the door."

"A week ago you say? I barely remember what I had for breakfast.." Oliver piped in, John looked at the company's CEO with a frown.

"I have a very good memory..." John stated, "He's right, a Centrifuge was stolen," Barry interjected, while the three had been talking she had started working.

"And from these footprints... looks like our thief carried it out himself... or herself."

The three looked over and found Barry looking at something on the ground, Lance and Oliver immediately moved to her with John giving a light shrug before following the two.

"So what does this guy need this... _centrifuge_ for anyways? What do they do exactly?" Lance asked aloud, this wasn't really his area of _expertise_ per say.

"If he needed to separate a chemical compound into its component pieces a centrifuge would do the trick. Like a drink unmixer if you will. John explained, Lance looked to Barry. "Basically, yeah," Barry confirmed.

"Great, so now the only question is what a thief need with a centra-whatever and how he managed to get out with it." Oliver and John were both escorted off the premises shortly afterward while Barry continued to comb over the area, not willing to let a single inch uncovered.

 _"I've finally done it."_ Barry thought to herself, her eyes rarely left the footprints for long, _"I've found something impossible."_

 _ **=================================EKM====================================**_

"So... you're telling me you gave a ride to an intelligent, attractive woman, drove to where you work, and didn't ask for her number after it becomes apparent that the two of you might be seeing more of eachother for the forseeable future?"

Sometimes John hated his brother...

"What would I say? 'Hi, I know you are busy with some sort of police investigation that will probably be your primary focus, but would you like to go on a date?' Sorry, I didn't think of that."

Shane just shook his head, "If someone is willing to take _one step_ into that crappy car that is already a few points in your favor."

John rolled his eyes before taking another bite out of his sandwich.

Mr. Queen had been kind enough to transfer him temporarily to the main building until the investigation was over and Queen Consolidated's Science Division was reopened, so now he was an errand boy there instead.

The upside, he got to spend more time with his big brother, the downside, he _had_ to spend time with his big brother.

Finishing up the somewhat bland food, John got out of his seat and started to leave the break room, "Oh hey, wait." Shane raised his voice.

"Yeah?" He turned around, sounding both irritated and curious at the same time.

"Do you have a date for the upcoming company party?" Shane asked semi-innocently.

 _"Welp, I know where this is going."_ Deciding to bite the bullet, John shook his head, delivering a solid "no" to his brother.

"Maybe you should try to find out about that girl then, see if she would be willing to go with ya," Shane suggested.

"That's a great suggestion Shane, now if only I knew where to find a Crime Scene Investigator from Central City in Starling. Maybe I should drive 500 miles to ask their chief tomorrow, be back in a few days." John answered, sarcasm dripping from his words as he continued towards the door.

"Or you could just run there and be back in two hours, anyways, time to get back to work." Shane was having too much fun with him...

 _ **=================================EKM====================================**_

 _"Okay, remember, this is just another case... where you met Oliver Queen... and finally find evidence of something that should be impossible... okay so this isn't just another case but act like it is, that means no fangirling, act cool."_ Barry kept repeating that to herself as she walked to Mr. Queen's office, his assistant had asked for her help in figuring out what happened at the Science Division.

Barry saw that Oliver, the assistant from earlier, and someone else were in the middle of a discussion, trying to not interrupt, Barry opened the door quietly.

"Can we help you with something, detective?" Oliver said. He sounded frustrated. That wasn't good.. try to be funny!

"Uhm, CSI's aren't really detectives-" Barry started as she entered the room, "We don't even carry a gun, just plastic bags..." She finished with a chuckle as the unknown guy folded his arms and Oliver closed his eyes in annoyance.

 _"WAY TO GO IDIOT!"_ Barry chided herself mentally, great first impression, ten out of ten. "So.. ahem... where should I set up?"

"I'll show you," The assistant answered, "What's going on?" Oliver inquired.

"Oh, your assistant said that you'd prefer to keep the investigation in-house, so I cleared it with my Captain to give you a hand." Barry was sometimes glad how quickly she could make a fib or two. Oliver's face clearly indicated that he had no prior knowledge about with and with a smile he gently took the Assistant by the arm, a conversation going on between them.

"Hello, Mr. Queen, sorry to bother you but I need you to si..." Barry nearly jumped as she heard the voice start up from behind her.

 _"Sometimes I wish Shane would jump in a hole and die..."_ John thought as he saw the tension in the room, Mr. Queen was speaking with Ms. Smoke about something while Diggle was standing next to them.

That girl from the other night being in the room that Shane had told him to go to was purely a coincidence, right?

"Am I... interrupting something?" John asked, "Nope, we just finished." Felicity answered, "If you'll follow me I'll show you around." Barry smiled and turned to leave with Felicity, "Hey John." Felicity greeted.

"Hi."

When he turned back Diggle and Oliver were finishing up a near whispering conversation.

Turning around, Oliver put on a smile, "Sorry about the wait, what can I help you with Mr. Fox?" Showing him the papers, the CEO signed everything he was required to, "Thank you." John said after Oliver finished.

"I just have a quick question Mr. Fox, are you going to the Company hosted Party?"

"Ehh... I don't really have anyone to go with, so probably not."

"I see, well, I hope you can make it. I hear it'll be fun." John gave a noncommittal gesture before he started walking to the door.

"Hold up, could you deliver this to Felicity? She and Ms. Allen are going to the Science Division so if you could meet them there that'd be great." Oliver pulled out a letter and handed it to John.

"Uh... sure." John really didn't know how he went from College Teacher to delivery boy, but if it meant avoiding his suspicious brother for a few more minutes, so be it. "Oh, and if you would stay and assist them, your knowledge of everything in the warehouse could prove useful if they need anything for the investigation."

"Yes sir," John thankfully wasn't stopped a third time and finally made it out the door.

The moment the door shut Diggle glanced at Oliver, "Why do I get the feeling that you know more about this than Felicity's new friend?" Oliver stared out at the city, "Pray I'm wrong," He said.

 _"If I'm_ right _, then this is about to get_ much _worse."_

 _ **=================================EKM====================================**_

Felicity stood at a table, watching and occansionally helping as Barry set up her Forenciscs gear, Barry opeened a suitcase containing basically everything she would need while out in the field.

Moving to the other woman, Felicity took a closer at what she was doing, "What exactly are you looking for?" Barry sounded ecstatic as she answered, "Your thief was wearing shoes, so they most likely tracked in a bunch of clues that will tip us off to where he's been over the past few days... gotcha!" She said, picking up something off the ground and carrying it over to the table. Felicity saw her place it in some sort of machine with a smile.

"Shouldn't take too long," Barry said, "Well while I have some time," Barry and Felicity both nearly had heart attacks as they turned to the new voice, John was standing there with a letter and an embarrassed expression. Scratching the back of his head he looked at them apologetically.

"Sorry.."

"Don't... don't do that... sheesh." Felicity chided while calming down. "Sorry... Mr. Queen told me to deliver this to you." He handed Felicity the envelope.

"Even better!" Barry accidentally said out loud, Felicity and John looked at her confused, "You two have met him, right? The vigilante? I read that he saved you," She pointed at Felicity, "And a police report said you encountered him while getting your wallet back from a thief." Barry pointed at John that time.

Felicity had turned her face away from them while John just stood there awkwardly.

"What was he like?" She inquired, more specifically at Felicity than John.

"Green," Felicity answered simply.

"Green!" Barry's voiced raised slightly, like she had a revelation of sorts, "That's interesting, right? Why green? Black would've been way better for stealth and urban camouflage." Felicity turned to Barry as she rambled on.

"I mean, I personally think he trained somewhere like a forest. orrrr a jungle environment and the green is to make a reference to that." Felicity moved to pick something up off the floor, "I don't really think about the vigilante all that much." She said frankly.

"He was very protective, observant, and quite scary when I encountered him," John interjected, "Really? Protective how?" Barry dug deeper, "Like... anyone who dresses up and plays robin hood in their spare time. He didn't seem like a guy who did it for fun."

"I see... oh! And his arrows, police records reported that he uses Carbon Fiber arrows, but if he switched to an aluminum carbon composite he would get _far_ better penetration."

"Maybe he thinks he penetrates just fine."

John struggled valiantly to not say "that's what she said", and barely succeeded. Barry voiced her theory that he had partners, especially someone with a background in computer sciences, and Felicity's noncommittal response had John thinking...

Nah, that'd be silly.

"Why are you so interested in the Vigilante?" Felicity asked her, Barry's energy seemed to evaporate, exhaling heavily, she began to speak "Uh... well..."

"When I was eleven, my mother was murdered." She stated.

Felicity took in a sharp breath, "Oh... I'm so sorry."

"They never caught the guy who did it... maybe _he_ would've."

John looked at the machine as it went off, "Your thingy's ready." He eloquently informed the two, Barry and Felicity snapped out of the somewhat depressing atmosphere and turned to look at the results.

"Huh... there's a crystalline structure in the soil." That didn't sound right...

Barry examined it further, "That's weird,"

"What's weird?" Felicity asked for clarification.

"It's _sugar_."

The three stood in silence for a few moments before John spoke up, "Mr. Queen told me to stay and help out so... need anything?"

Barry perked up at his question, "Could you help us carry some stuff?"

Oh, of course. _Manual Labor_.

 _ **=================================EKM====================================**_

 _ **AN**_

 _ **I'll cut this off here, seems like as good a stopping point as any.**_

 ** _John really doesn't use his speed enough to have it always on the mind, Shane, on the other hand, loves to playfully grill him about it. As for what John's job is right now, he was an intern at Queen Consolidated Science Division until being transferred due to break-in by an unknown individual._**

 ** _The can of worms (from my perspective) is Fem!Barry btw._**


	8. The Scientist Pt 2

With a strained grunt, John hoisted a deceptively heavy machine that Barry said she needed later onto a nearby shelf, taking in a breath of air when he was done. His job had apparently changed from teacher to intern to mover boy all in three weeks. All the items on the list she had given him definitely looked like they were needed, but it seems that it was purely made up of somewhat obsolete machinery.

All the items on the list she had given him definitely sounded like they were needed, but it seems that it was purely made up of somewhat obsolete, and heavy, machinery.

Felicity stared at him with a suspicious look, Barry had given him a list of heavier equipment to bring in that was thankfully within the warehouse itself, but... "Hey, Barry..." She quietly got the other woman's attention, Barry snapped out of her own staring, "Yeah?"

"You are aware that Queen Consolidated has newer, lighter models of all the stuff on that list, right? And that we have some stored in this warehouse?" Felicity turned to face Barry with narrowed eyes, "Oh! Umm... I prefer the older variants, they're more familiar." The CSI's ears had a bit of a red tinge to them and apparently, the screen got a whole lot more interesting.

Felicity now knew what it was like to be on the other side of a terrible lie. _"You need those older models like I need Oliver shirtless in the Arrowcave while I'm working... muscles... sweaty..."_ The hacker just smiled a little as she got lost in the fantasy, but she snapped out of it quickly.

"Okay."

There wasn't any _real_ need to say anything, no one was really being _hurt_. Plus, it would be wrong to call someone out for what she was also guilty of... but she totally didn't say anything just to not interrupt Oliver's workout.

At the very least it passed the time for the two while they waited for Oliver to arrive. Felicity had texted him a little after the sugar discovery, he had replied that he was on his way.

That was fifteen minutes ago, and he still hadn't sho-

"You found something?" Oliver's voice derailed Felicity's train of thought.

Speak of the handsome devil and he shall appear, it seemed.

Oliver and Diggle walked up to them, looking at the three expectantly.

" _We_ found something." Felicity clarified, she looked over at Barry who seemed... embarrassed, _"Shoot, I forgot about her weirdness around Oliver."_ Spending so much time around the man, Felicity had seen more than her fair share of fangirls too busy fangirling to get a word out.

The silence stretched for a few seconds before John spoke up, "They found some sugar and dirt." Barry nodded her head in confirmation, "Right, the killer dragged it in here, and Felicity said there was a sugar refinery nearby."

"Exactly, the land around it is suffused in waste sugar so I checked. Turns out, they had a delivery truck go missing a few days ago." Felicity revealed.

"Their truck matches the make and model the thief used to steal the centrifuge." Barry elaborated, Oliver didn't look any happier.

"Did you manage to track the vehicle?" He asked, "We've been trying, so far we don't have-"

"That just went off," John interrupted, four turned to look at the screen, Felicity took a closer look, "Oh, wow. It was just used to rob a blood bank." She informed the group.

"Are you sure?" Oliver questioned, "Yup, and it looks like he took about thirty-thousand CCs of O-negative blood."

John made a face, "That's universal donor blood, and didn't this guy just steal a centrifuge?"

"So he's got super strength and likes blood. I don't suppose anyone here started believing in vampires." He quipped, this guy did steal some weird stuff, gotta give him that.

"W...We should give this information to the local police." Barry said nervously.

"I'll... deal with that." Oliver assured her, "Did you say that you were working on a similar case in Central City?" Barry slowly nodded, "Oh.. yeah. It's... y'know, it's very similar. Got a lot of similarities, whole bunch of similar elements."

John was standing behind them shaking his head as she tried to embellish on what was _so obviously_ a fib, and a bad one at that.

"Right..." Oliver and Diggle turned to leave. Barry awkwardly looked at the screen again with Felicity joining her in examining whatever data came up.

John, meanwhile, started to take his jacket off. Honestly, it wasn't cold enough for him to continue wearing it for now.

A few feet away from the others, Oliver was having a private conversation with Dig, "Look into this Allen kid, there's more to her than she's letting on."

Diggle just chuckled, "Her intentions seem clear to me," He said with a small, amused smile. Oliver looked over and saw Barry distracted by Mr. Fox's exposed forearms before Felicity bopped her on the head. "Focus," She jokingly chided.

"Just... do it please."

"Oliver, when are you gonna tell me _exactly_ what we're up against?" Oliver didn't reply, the billionaire vigilante just headed off to do God knows what.

Standing there, Diggle realized that what Fox said had probably been right on the money. What did this guy need with a centrifuge and universal donor blood? And why did Oliver seem so worried about it?

 _ **===================================EKM===================================**_

Diggle just watched as Felicity patched Oliver up, apparently, whatever he did resulted in some nasty looking bruises to his side. Felicity was trying to be as gentle as possible as she patched him up.

"Yeow!" Oliver sucked in a breath, looking at his medic accusingly, "Sorry..." Felicity apologized, thankfully she was done.

Slowly closing his gray hoodie, Oliver muttered a quiet thank you to her before zipping it up. Diggle had his arms crossed, silently demanding an explanation.

Oliver let out a heavy breath, "You were right to think I knew more than I was letting on." He admitted, "I've seen men like that before."

"You have? When? Where?" Felicity rapidly asked.

When Oliver said "The Island" Diggle had to fight the urge to say "Of course" as he spilled the beans. He wouldn't be surprised if that Island had an ancient mystical rod somewhere. "I stumbled across an old Japanese WW2 military project, they were attempting to make human weapons with a super serum."

"Human weapons, my God. What's next, aliens?" Diggle asked him sarcastically, it seems like that Island had everything.

Oliver gave a harsh glare at the joking attitude, "This is real, Dig. Those five years I was away I saw things that just... defy explanation."

"There was a doctor named Ivo, he came to the island, and tested the serum on... people." Diggle and Felicity grimaced, every time they think Oliver's time on that island couldn't get worse they were proven wrong.

"Those that survived gained strength, speed, and durability way beyond what a human should be capable of."

"You think Ivo is in Starling?" Oliver shook his head, "He's dead. So are all the people he injected with the serum, and I _burned_ the rest of it."

Diggle let out a hum as he pieced it together, "You think someone found how to make more of it, how to recreate the recipe." Oliver nodded.

"Mr. Fox was onto something, the thief took off with a centrifuge and a truck full of universal donor blood. I think someone is trying to make more of it. A lot more." Diggle leaned into a nearby table as a huge weight seemed to set on his shoulders.

Someone was trying to make an army of superhumans in Starling City, people capable of hitting harder than any human should be capable of, running faster, fighting longer, and take way more punishment before going down.

Even Starling City's resident vigilante couldn't stop a force like that.

"Why couldn't you have been marooned on Aruba?" Felicity _genuinely_ asked, at least there weren't any super soldier experiments there.

Hopefully anyways.

"There's a third component, a strong sedative." Oliver reached for a used arrow and handed it to Felicity. "I'm realizing more and more that I preferred it when you left these _in_ people."

"I need you to run some tests on that blood, find out what sedative they're using." Oliver grimaced as a wave of pain hit him. If we can do that we might be able to stop them before their next robbery."

Diggle thankfully took over, "If we can do that we might be able to stop them before their next robbery."

Felicity looked like she was going to be sick as she held onto the arrow, "I'll get this to Barry." Diggle scooted closer to Oliver, "Guess those two get along well." He noted.

"What did you find out about Ms. Allen?" Apparently, Oliver wasn't in a talkative mood.

"She's not who she says she is," Diggle said, confirming the Archer's suspicions. "That Fox guy is clean, though." Diggle had taken the liberty of doing a thorough background check on him as well, all he found was a teacher who got laid off in Detroit and had a family member in Starling.

Diggle got up while Oliver remained seated, contemplating which problem he should tackle first.

 _ **===================================EKM===================================**_

A storm was raging, rain pouring down hard onto the city below. A streak of lightning arced throughout the skies followed by thunder.

Every time the flash of light reached the three investigating the crime scene, John tensed up. When he activated his power, he wasn't afraid the lightning that struck him.

It couldn't hurt him, it empowered him. Made him fast. But it also made him a target. Ever since that man in yellow appeared and brutalized him, the sights and sounds of storms made him skittish.

He very nearly dropped the small device Felicity had asked him to find, it seemed that for the time being, he had been reassigned to work with her and that CSI to figure out who broken into Queen Consolidated's Science Divison.

This basically came down to him being the person they asked to find equipment as needed, which, thankfully, the warehouse had the majority of what they needed.

He sat the small device next to Felicity just as Barry identified something _very_ wrong with the way a shelf was stacking chemicals.

"They have Nitric Acid next to Hydrazine?!" She asked dumbfounded, Felicity looked up from what she was doing with a questioning expression.

Barry took a closer look at the shelf, stepping onto the stepladder to see what exactly had been put there.

Another flash of light heralded a thunderous cascade of noise. John braced himself on the worktable, taking in shuddering breaths to try and calm himself.

"Permanganates on top of Acetone?" Barry continued her observations with an incredulous tone, picking up two containers to emphasize what was wrong, "This is the _definition_ of dangerous."

"If it's so dangerous, maybe you shouldn't be touching them..." Felicity pointed out. Barry seemed to ignore her and began placing everything in more safe locations on the shelf.

Another jolt of electricity appeared in the sky, messing with the lights inside the warehouse and resulting in a thunderous boom sounding around them.

"FUCK!" John swore, his limbs losing their strength as he collapsed. "Whoa! John are you okay?" Felicity went to check on him and Barry jumped down from the stepladder. Neither she nor Felicity could get a response out of him as John tried to calm down, taking deep breaths, closing his eyes and covering his ears.

A few seconds passed, flashes of lightning and the booming of thunder tore through the skies, and he sat there shaking as the sounds reached him.

The storm soon quieted, and thankfully it seems to have stopped for the time being. John gradually calmed himself, taking long, steady breaths.

"You okay?" Barry asked John as he let out one last large breath, "Yeah... sorry about that." He got off the floor and leaned onto the workspace, "Don't be, if I knew the weather would turn out like this I wouldn't have made you stay... if I knew you had astraphobia." Felicity apologized to him.

"To be honest... I didn't know either." John admitted.

"Oh, so... this is recent then?" Felicity didn't mean to pry, but if he wasn't aware that he had this fear...

"I did get struck by lightning recently..." Barry looked at him surprised, "Really?" John looked a bit uncomfortable, "I don't really want to talk about it." Barry thankfully dropped the topic.

"You sure you're okay?" Felicity asked one last time, getting an affirmative from John she turned to Barry, "So, Barry."

"Hmm?"

"I managed to get a sample of the perpetrator's blood from the Police." She began, putting on gloves. "We need to isolate a sedative in the blood, it could lead us to the thief." The woman continued preparing the sample for examination.

"How did the police get it?" Barry inquired curiously.

"Apparently the vigilante shot him with an arrow." The CSI dropped what she was doing and turned to Felicity, a look of awe on her face.

"You're kidding." Seemingly instantly, Barry was next to Felicity, "You know what this means right? This means the vigilante is working the same case we are." She spoke rapidly, obviously excited by the prospect of in some way helping Starling City's resident Robin Hood.

"Heh, go figure," Felicity replied, injecting a syringe filled with a red liquid into a vial. "How did you get it?" Felicity placed the vial into a centrifuge, "Oliver has a lot of connections."

"Oh, well, pays to work for a billionaire."

"Actually my take home is nothing special." Felicity revealed, John nodded his head in agreement, "I probably wouldn't be able to afford my own place right now, thankfully my brother is letting me crash at his place for now."

"At least you get to go home on a regular basis, considering he and I are together every night." Felicity didn't see the somewhat envious expression that briefly flashed on Barry's face as she pressed the button to start the machine up.

"Huh... I didn't realize he and you were..." Barry trailed off, "Oh no, work." Felicity stumbled her way through an explanation, shaking her head as she clarified her relationship with Mr. Queen. "Oliver and I are not, no. I do not like Oliver, I mean, like in a boyfriend-girlfriend way."

The room became silent as the awkwardness reached critical mass, the spinning of the tiny device the only sound that could be heard.

John was looking at the list of items but wasn't actually reading it as he thought on what Shane had said yesterday; everyone going to the company party thing either knew someone, had a date or were married, John did not. He idly noticed something hadn't been retrieved yet and went to find it, rummaging around the warehouse in his search.

What Shane had said during break sounded dumb, asking a random stranger that was investigating a crime scene for work to join him at some ball didn't sound like a good idea.

But... Barry had a sort of brightness, a quirky personality and a sense of wonder when dealing with this case. She was also quite intelligent and not bad looking in the slightest, though John wasn't that petty.

John made up his mind on the way back, clearing his throat and getting the attention of the two, "So... Uhm, Barry. The company is having this work function thing, some sort of party." Barry looked at him questioningly, "I was invited and given a plus one but... I don't have anyone to go with." John elaborated.

"I was wondering if you'd like to... uh... go with me?" He finished awkwardly. Barry looked taken aback but didn't seem _opposed_ to the idea. "There isn't going to be any dancing is there?" She asked, "I'm just not very good on my feet." Her worries were put to rest by John saying that there wasn't any dancing that he knew of.

Looks like Shane wasn't as wrong as he thought, the former teacher felt a bit of a weight leave his shoulders.

Shane would be happy to hear that his little bro wasn't gonna be a third wheel.

 _ **===================================EKM===================================**_

 **The Next Day**

Barry stood watching the T.V in a room adjacent to Mr. Queen's office, Felicity was off somewhere and John was busy with his actual job. Thankfully Mr. Queen had made "assist Barry and Felicity" an order straight from the boss, so he wasn't in trouble.

As she stood there, Barry thought about the people she had interacted with over the course of this investigation. Felicity was, despite her claims, obviously into Oliver. In fact, from the way that Diggle guy and John avoided the subject it seemed like everyone but the two of them could see it.

Plus, Felicity was most definitely not the stereotypical blonde, Felicity didn't have her expertise in Crime Scenes, obviously, but her knowledge of computers and tracking software was impressive. Barry also found she enjoyed spending time with the similarly socially awkward woman.

John Fox, on the other hand, was a different story. He seemed nice, her first interaction with the man was him pulling over to help a stranger out, and he was intelligent. It was with his help that she could figure out exactly how much force would've been needed to break down that steel door.

They had found the mysterious thief actually busted it down with his hands. Which, while that was terrifying, it just made Barry more and more excited about this case.

With everything they found, it pointed to something impossible.

She _needed_ to prove that it _wasn't_ ridiculous for the Man-In-Yellow to be her mother's killer.

Barry was brought out of her thoughts by the news station coming back on, "-and that was Harrison Wells, head of S.T.A.R. Labs." Barry frowned, looks like she missed whatever H.R was talking about.

John walked into the room, briefly greeting her as he placed yet another forum on Oliver's desk.

"Central City is just a day away from making history when the controversial S.T.A.R. Lab's Particle Accelerator is finally turned on." Barry turned to John, "Pretty exciting, right?"

"Yeah, I heard that the accelerator is going to be used to give clean energy to the city too." He replied, "Yup, and just think about all we could learn-"

The two heard footsteps, "Would that include learning about how you're not a CSI, that you're an Assistant?" Oliver asked. "And whose bosses _don't know_ you're in Starling. _And_ that there is no similar case in Central, so tell me, Barry. Why are you here?"

The positive atmosphere evaporated, John turned to her and saw Barry's guilty expression. Apparently, what Oliver said was true. She collected her thoughts and faced John, exhaling before she started talking.

"I told you my mom was murdered," She began, "By your father," Oliver interjected, "He _didn't_ do it!" Barry defended, raising her voice.

"You told Felicity and I that the police didn't find who killed her." John cut in before the two could continue, Barry turned back to him, "They... the police _think_ they did." Barry explained, "My dad has been serving a life sentence for a crime he didn't commit, and when I tried to tell them who actually did it, they didn't believe me."

John tilted his head, "About what?" Oliver's head bobbed, while he did look angry at her lying to them, at least he was willing to hear her out.

Barry took in a shuddering breath as she remembered, "When I was eleven... one night, _something_ came into our house. Like a _tornado_." John nodded as he listened.

"There was a blur, and streaks of red. Somewhere inside that blur, I saw a person in yellow." John felt a chill creep up his spine at that description, Barry didn't notice as she continued, "My dad told me to run, and before I could _blink_ I found myself 20 blocks away."

"I _tried_ to explain it to the police but they thought I was just covering for my dad. But _I know_ what I saw, that it was real. As real as the man who busted into your warehouse with his _fists_." Barry said to Oliver, who kept a straight face.

"That's why I look into these things, the impossible cases. If I could just figure out _one of them_ , maybe I could find out really who killed my mom." Barry told John, voice breaking. "I _am_ sorry I lied to you." She started toward the door but stopped short of opening it.

"Better find another plus one." John opened his mouth, but she was already out the door. John looked at Oliver, "She did lie to us." Oliver stated.

John shook his head and scoffed, walking to the door, "I guess an ex-billionaire playboy would know all about lying to people." Oliver clenched his fists as John left.

Now all he had to do was explain this to Felicity.

* * *

 **Alrighty then, cutting this here.**

 **John did kinda replace Felicity there at the end, but having the three of them in the same room at that point would've been weird. He did also recognize some of the descriptions of the blur in Barry's house that night.**

 **Next chapter will be wrapping up The Scientist at the very least, probably spilling into Three Ghosts as well.**


	9. The Scientist Pt 3

"So, that police girl said she saw the same dude who beat the crap outta you when she was eleven? And she has been trying to find him to prove that her dad is innocent?" Shane said, getting everything straight.

"Yes, that is in fact what I just told you." John tugged on the collar of his formal suit with a frown, the thing was very uncomfortable.

"Well, unless she had a heck of an imagination that just so happens to have made up a fictional situation which matches the description of that dude, she also saw him."

"I know... I told you that five minutes ago when we were walking in."

"Well I was distracted by Sharon," Shane said in his defense.

"How are you three years older than me and yet you have the attention span of a high-school teen?" John's usual interactions with his brother painted a hyperactive picture, not a man in a management position of a multi-billion dollar company.

John supposed that Shane just wasn't in the managing mood when they spoke.

"Well, I guess you would be the expert on that, right, Mr. former teacher."

"What does that mean?!" John demanded.

"Nothing, just that as a teacher you probably had to deal with immature brats a whole bunch. Anyways, where is that CSI lady now?" Shane tried shifting the conversation back on track, thankfully distracting his peeved brother.

"I don't know. After Oliver decided he had the right to take moral high ground in the lying department she just left the building. And I was a bit busy dealing with other things at the time."

Shane raised a brow at his brother, his voice had an angry quality to it, "You are quite upset over this, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?" John took a sip of some alcoholic beverage that Shane hadn't seen him place an order for, looking at the back of his hands, the older Fox sibling saw the few hairs there were standing.

"Are you..." He trailed off, John winked, "Alchohol doesn't affect me when I'm doing this."

"What a way to use such a gift, you lucky prick." Shane noticed that his brother's eyes were rapidly going over everything in the room, seemingly on the lookout for something. "If you're looking for your lady friend I doubt she'll be here." John choked on his drink, barely keeping it down as he started coughing.

After he recovered, John looked at his brother incredulously, "What do you think I'm looking for?" He questioned. Shane looked to be in deep thought as he began mentally going through a list.

 _"So apparently it isn't a girl, boy? No, I think I'd know if he swung that way, the boss maybe? Give him a piece of your mind? Or perhaps he is just looking at stuff so quick to me it looks frantic, but to him, it's just casual observation."_ Shane refocused on his brother, an amusing thought entering his head.

"A young boy." Seeing John's bewildered face always brought him a bit of joy. It was kinda easy to mess with John once you knew which buttons to push. As a former teacher, he had always hated those teacher-student scandals with a passion.

"NO!" He barely kept his voice below a shout.

"A girl?"

"Again, _no_." John looked tired of answering that question.

"Then I don't know." John gently rubbed his head, mumbling something underneath his breath. While Shane hadn't noticed it before the air had been charged by something, which apparently was his little brother's electric power.

"I was on the lookout for _that_ guy, why do you think I haven't used them often?" John actually sounded worried, and from what he knew of that fight, Shane couldn't blame him.

He didn't want to imagine being in the park when suddenly he is running from someone faster than him, stronger than him, and who nearly kills him before, by some miracle, he's are given the chance to escape.

And John said the guy knew his name.

From what Shane had pieced together, John thought that the man's ability to find him had something to do with his usage of the formula, that it might cause him to emit an energy signature of some sort.

Considering that he only encountered the Man-In-Yellow after prolonged use of his speed over the course of several weeks, and the man hadn't returned for the time he had been in Starling without using his power, it seemed like a sound theory.

Any response he would've given was lost as Moria, Oliver, and Thea Queen made their appearances in the spacious room, followed shortly by Sharon, who cozied up with Shane. John turned his seat around to face the bar, staring into the amber liquid filling his glass as he tried to ignore the lovebirds to his left.

Honestly, it was great that his brother had found someone, and from his limited interactions with the woman, Sharon seemed like a good fit for Shane.

Doesn't mean he wanted to be exposed to it so routinely.

Someone sat down next to him, "Hey there, could I have a moment of your time?" The voice belonged to none other than Oliver Queen, John considered ignoring him, but turning to his brother revealed a liplock.

Suddenly, the prospect of leaving sounded much more appealing, "Lead the way," John replied with a somewhat desperate smile.

Stopping in a nearby hallway, John had to suppress the urge to mouth off to the man, he doubted Oliver would randomly reach out to him without something in mind.

"Can I help you with anything," John spoke first.

Oliver shook his head before inhaling deeply. "I just wanted to say, I'm sorry about yesterday. I overreacted and our best chance of finding out who's responsible took the brunt of it. And you're right, I'm not in a position to chide anyone over keeping secrets."

John was almost speechless, he definitely wasn't expecting to hear this, especially so soon. He managed to find a response quick enough,"Uhm, well, thanks. But, I don't think I'm the one you should be apologizing to." He pointed out.

"I know, which is why I invited her, after apologizing." Oliver finished his sentence by gestured down the hallway with his head, turning to look in that direction, John saw Barry standing there in a red formal ballgown. It was a silk-like material which had a single, modest slit near her left leg.

She seemed a bit embarrassed to be wearing it if the way she fumbled with her hands said anything. Near the neckline, it had a semi-transparent red material, but it exposed nothing risque.

"Just so you know," Oliver whispered as he returned to the dance, "She will be carded at the bar." John rolled his eyes before strolling over to greet her.

"Hi," Barry gave a little wave, "Hey." John held out his arm, "You do know that I was serious about not being able to dance, right?" Her green eyes stared into his own, John just chuckled, "I got kicked off a play in the fourth grade after breaking my ankle trying to do a spin."

"Hey." John held out his arm. "You do know that I was serious about not being able to dance, right?" Her green eyes stared into his own, John just chuckled, "I got kicked off a play in the fourth grade after breaking my ankle trying to do a spin."

"You do know that I was serious about not being able to dance, right?" Her green eyes stared into his own. John just chuckled, "I got kicked off a play in the fourth grade after breaking my ankle trying to do a spin."

John just chuckled, "I got kicked off a play in the fourth grade after breaking my ankle trying to do a spin."

"I think I might've just met someone worse than me," Barry laughed. John shook his head in amusement. "C'mon, let's go tear a rug and never get invited back." He joked.

John shook his head in amusement. "C'mon, let's go tear a rug and never get invited back." He joked.

"Sounds like a plan." Barry smiled. "Sounds like the

"Sounds like the _perfect_ plan." John playfully corrected.

As his brother would later inform him, legends of John and Barry's horrific dancing skills were the talk of the evening. And the day after that too. In fact, it would forever be within everyone's mind for years to come.

As the party started winding down, Barry and John headed back to the crime scene, the fact that she had requested he came along seemed good.

The two were going through some of the data collected when her phone went off, looking at the ID, worry graced her features, "the boss" she mouthed to John.

"Hello?" She answered it, "No sir..." John crept away to give her some privacy, "Yes sir I..." Barry grimaced, the man on the other end of the phone call had raised his voice.

"Yes sir, I value my job very much." Barry chewed on her lip, "I know..." She started pacing, "I'll be on the next train sir, I promise." The call ended.

John walked back in the room, "Did you hear any of that?" He shook his head. "Well, my boss found out I don't actually have food poisoning, so... I have to be back at Central City tomorrow if I want to still be employed, which I do."

"Well, my boss found out I don't actually have food poisoning, so... I have to be back at Central City tomorrow if I want to still be employed, which I do."

"Uh, tell the SCPD that the sedative in the thief's blood is Ketamine, it's a scheduled three controlled substance, so it shouldn't be too hard to track," Barry said, picking up her bag and checking to be sure she had everything.

"I'll be sure to do that," John replied. "Thank you." Barry sounded glad to hear it. "I.. guess I'll get going then."

"Thank you." Barry sounded glad to hear it. "I.. guess I'll get going then."

"To the train station?"

"Yeah."

"No offense, but at this hour I wouldn't walk the streets." John warned.

"Why?" Barry questioned.

"This is Starling City..." Barry got the gist of what he was saying.

"Oh, well... hmm." That put her in a pickle, she had promised Singh that she would be back in Central by tomorrow morning...

John pulled out his phone and pulled up his contact list, texting Felicity, whose number he had been given earlier that day to keep in contact if needed, and sent her the Ketamine information. "There, Ms. Smoak will make sure it gets to the right people," John told her.

"Now then, do you need a ride?"

"Yes, thank you." Barry was grateful for the offer.

 _ **=================================EKM===================================**_

The Hood crept into the A.R.G.U.S. warehouse, Felicity had managed to track down the only place in the city that held enough sedatives to go with the amount of blood the stolen centrifuge could handle.

Oliver had to be careful, he had faced someone similar to their thief before and while he managed to beat them, it hadn't been easy.

Felicity had revealed that the Mirakuru-augmented man's muscles were almost as dense as concrete, going off how one of the arrows bent upon contact. Oliver was tough, but he couldn't risk getting tagged by him.

He was only a few steps into the storage area when he had to drop down, a large crate went soaring past his head and crashed into the wall, splintering into pieces.

Oliver drew two arrows, firing them at the crate's point of origin, a man in the rafters above him.

The masked man jumped onto a nearby shelf, then to the ground floor, an arrow barely missing him.

He was only two feet away from Oliver and swung his fist at the archer, Oliver ducked beneath the blow and took aim with a restraining arrow, tying the Masked man to a shelf by his neck.

"Who are you," Oliver growled.

"Merely a follower." The masked man replied.

"Of who?"

"My Brother."

"Did he give you the Mirakuru, did he inject you with it?!"

The masked man took in a breath, "No, he _saved_ me with it." Abruptly breaking his restraints, the augmented man took one step toward the Emerald Archer before two arrows pierced his feet.

"RRAH!" He screamed out, The Hood dodged his next strike and delivered a flurry of blows to the man, wincing with each hit as the solid, concrete-like body proved problematic.

The masked man blocked one of Oliver's strikes and disarmed him, it felt like his bones had been cracked as his main weapon was sent flying several feet away.

Quickly, the masked man ripped one of the arrows pinning him to the floor out of his foot.

Before he could get the second, Oliver kicked the man in the back of his knees, forcing him to kneel.

His foe responded by removing the second arrow, dodging Oliver's attempted double punch and responding in kind with a hard blow to the Archer's chest.

The air left Oliver's lungs, his ribs felt like they were on fire as he was hurled across the room, sliding to a halt several feet away. The Vigilante heard his foe's boots getting closer and tried to get back to his feet, but before he could the Mirakuru soldier kicked him hard in the side, launching Oliver into the air and smashing him into the air vent above.

It took all of his willpower and years of training to not cry out in agony.

On the way down, Oliver was struck by the superhuman again and was punched through a metallic shelf, the force of his foe's blow was such that it broke into pieces under the stress.

The masked man saw The Hood laying there, defeated, and continued on his way. Oliver felt woozy, the pain became less of a priority to him as he looked down at his leg and saw two syringes sticking out of it. _"Not good,"_ With uneasy hands, Oliver pressed a small button on his chest, signaling that he needed help ASAP.

He tried to position himself in such a way that when he fell unconscious he wouldn't move all that much; if his ribs were broken any movement could puncture his lungs. He felt darkness beginning to overtake him, his last thought just before he fell under was, surprisingly, of Felicity.

Freaking out over how hurt he was.

 _ **=================================EKM===================================**_

John pulled in to an available parking spot in front of the Train Station, he and Barry sat there for a moment. Letting out a thoughtful hum, John turned to her. "So, this may sound weird but... would you be okay exchanging numbers with me?" Barry was honestly caught offguard by the question, but smiled nonetheless.

"Sure."

After doing that, Barry got out of the car as John popped the trunk open. As she walked past John rolled down his window, "See ya around Barry."

"Hopefully."

The errant CSI assistant entered the train station, disappearing behind the door. John flipped on the radio, heard _Owner of a Lonely Heart_ playing, and immediately turned it off again. _"Guess all good things have to come to an end."_ John almost pulled out when Barry walked out with a frustrated look on her face.

John got out of his car and leaned on it. "Everything okay?" Barry shook her head dejectedly,

"Nope, I missed the last train back to Central. Next one is tomorrow."

"That. _Sucks_."

Barry nodded in agreement. "Yeah, my boss is gonna ki-" Barry's voice cut out as a dart hit her in the neck, she managed to look at John with wide, fearful eyes before falling to the ground.

Quickly turning, John saw a man roughly 10 yards away with a rifle and a mask covering his face. John nearly shouted the words to activate his powers "3X2-" before being cut off by another dart hitting his neck too. "Hrng..." Placing a hand on his car, John slid to the concrete.

The last thing the attempted Speedster saw before the darkness took him was the shooter take off his mask, revealing the face of John Diggle, Oliver Queen's Bodyguard. _"What..."_

 _ **=================================EKM===================================**_

Barry woke up slowly, her head was spinning and she felt like she was going to throw up. It was quiet as she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw being a silver mannequin. An absolutely pounding headache hit her and Barry grasped her head.

Opening her eyes again she saw several green arrows bunched together, and more importantly, a bow.

Barry sucked in a breath of air, she barely even noticed the awakening John Fox as, to her right, she saw green boots. Followed by green leather pants, then the same colored jacket.

And finally, the unmasked face of the Vigilante.

The revelation of who it was briefly quelled any fangirl screams because the man she had been trying to discover the identity of was _Oliver Queen_.

Laid out unconscious...

John Diggle stood above him looking concerned and Felicity Smoak came into view, barely restraining her own fearful expression.

"Please save my friend." She begged, Barry and John slowly got off the slabs they were laying on.

"Holy crap," was the simultaneous response.

Before they could ask any questions, Oliver's unconscious body began shuddering and the EKG Monitor _screamed_ as he started to flatline.

Barry jumped into action, "Hold him!" She said, "He's not going to make it." Diggle held Oliver's upper half down as Barry went to work.

"He will. We just have to find out what's in his system." Felicity reassured them, pinning Oliver's legs as best she could.

"I-I-I usually only work on dead people," Barry admitted nervously.

"Barry!" Fox snapped her out of it.

"All right I can think of four possible diagnoses for what's causing his body to react this way." She started to quickly examine Oliver, flashing a light in his eyes, "make that three. Begin chest compressions." Barry instructed Diggle as she checked Oliver's pulse, "two." She picked up a syringe.

"Hold his arm." Diggle did so as she drew some blood from Oliver, "Got it, he's suffering from intravenous coagulation." Barry revealed.

"What?" Felicity didn't know of those terms. John immediately started looking for a blood thinner, "His blood is too thick." He shouted Felicity looked at Barry, "You can save him, right?"

Barry didn't have time to think about it as Fox shoved a box filled with rat poison in her hands.

Diggle looked at Fox like he was crazy, "That'll kill him."

Barry shook her head, "He'll die if we don't." She said frankly, Diggle looked at Felicity for any rational advice, "Do it."

"If we get just the right amount it will counteract the clotting agent, allowing his blood to flow normally again," John left out the "hopefully" as he and Barry worked on preparing the correct amount of Rat Poison with lightning speed. In three seconds flat Barry injected another syringe into Oliver's arm.

With the mixture in his system, all they could do was wait. "He's crashing." Diggle informed them, "Oliver, no! Stay with me!" Felicity pleaded to anyone who would listen.

Oliver took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, the monitor display showed his heartbeat was back to normal. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"So," Fox looked at Barry, "it seems that Oliver Queen is the Vigilante." He chuckled.

"Who woulda thought." Barry replied with a smile as everyone calmed down.

Now all they had to do was wait for the Emerald Archer to wake up...

* * *

 **Nice guy John gives someone a ride, gets shot in the throat for his troubles.**


	10. Three Ghosts Pt 1

_Note: If John Diggle and John Fox are in the same scene, I will be using their last names to differentiate between them._

* * *

The CSI had been keeping a close eye on the unconscious archer as he recovered, making sure the rat poison didn't cause any new problems; if they saved him from clotting blood only for Oliver to die from it being too thin their efforts would be for naught.

Fox had taken a seat in a nearby chair, he hadn't spoken much since waking up in what was discovered to be the basement of Verdant, a nightclub run, funnily enough, by Thea Queen. He had been staring at Oliver in disbelief, though it lessened as the pieces fell into place.

Oliver Queen, a billionaire playboy with no skills beyond throwing money around, managed to survive on an Island for five years. It would've been borderline impossible for him unless substantial survival skills were acquired, but that didn't explain how he was a crack-shot with a weapon first made thousands of years ago.

Nor did it explain where he got his martial arts training from, Fox had seen the occasional security footage on the news and it was easy to see the vigilante was more than skilled, he was a living weapon.

Knowing who Oliver was by night had Fox reevaluating his opinion of the man, the first encounter with Oliver was of the Archer stopping what looked like a bad situation, a fully grown man standing over a young girl.

Of course, it wasn't what it seemed, that kid had stolen his wallet and he just wanted it back but it was the reasoning behind the action that mattered. Oliver saw a bad situation and went to stop it.

It had been almost two years since the Archer's arrival in Starling and crime rates, or at least successful crime rates, were lower than they had been in decades, seems fear of the Emerald Vigilante kept criminals at bay.

Drug cartels, gun runners, gang violence, and white collar criminals. John had no doubt that each any every one of them went to bed in a cold sweat, praying that Starling City's protector didn't find them.

The only hiccup was that Tempest group, who had somehow leveled The Glades. John looked down at his legs, legs that could outrace cars and leave sound in the dust.

If he had his powers before the Glades had fallen, and knew about the situation, would he have used them to try and find the Earthquake devices? When he lived in Detroit there was no doubt in his mind that a super speed vigilante crusade would have been a welcome change.

But instead of fighting against criminal corruption and protecting people, he moved to Starling when times got tough. Whereas a man with nothing superhuman about him was willing to fight an entire city if necessary to clean it up with only a bow and some arrows.

John had to wonder what kind of man that make him, given all the power in the world to change it, and running.

Barry looked at him after taking off a bandage from Oliver's neck, "What's got you so down Jo-URK!" Barry was cut off by a gloved hand wrapping around her throat, Oliver had woken up, she looked at Fox with widening eyes as Oliver increased the pressure.

Barry tried to choke out a "help" but couldn't quite form it, but everyone heard Oliver's sudden movement. Diggle and Fox grabbed the confused vigilante and began trying to pull him away from Barry.

Seeing a second person who wasn't supposed to be in the knock just made the Archer punch him in the face with his free hand. "Ahh!" Fox covered his nose, blood trickling between his fingers.

"Oliver let her go!" Diggle commanded, trying to wrestle the archer away from his savior.

"OLIVER STOP!" Felicity shouted, Barry nearly collapsed on a nearby table, drawing in hampered breaths of air.

Getting up from the table Oliver looked around disoriented, "What the hell's going on here?!" He demanded.

"You were injected with a strong-acting blood coagulant," Felicity explained to him calmly.

Barry let out a wheeze, "You would've stroked out," Clearing her throat, she continued her explanation, "thankfully, you had some rat poison on hand. A blood thinner." Oliver still looked more than upset.

"These two save your life, Oliver." Diggle tried to get the point across.

Queen looked between Barry and Fox, who was still covering his nose and glaring at him. "Hell of a thank you."

Oliver turned around to face Diggle and Felicity, "This is the point in a lifesaving scenario where you thank the people who did the lifesaving."

Oliver wasn't having it, "You told them who I am." He accused quietly.

"Yes, I did." Felicity freely admitted.

"That's not your secret to tell, Felicity." Oliver was explaining it like he was talking to a five-year-old. " _I_ decide who finds out my identity."

Fox's nose had stopped bleeding for the time being and he wiped the blood away while Oliver and Felicity going off on each other.

"We didn't really have time to vote what with you being unconscious and _dying_." Felicity argued.

"What happens if they leave here and go to the police or the press?" Oliver shot back.

"They wouldn't do that," Felicity said firmly.

"I wouldn't do that." Barry butt in with a confirmation. Oliver and Felicity were face to face now.

"I trust them." Felicity stood her ground.

"I don't!" Oliver raised his voice.

"What are you going to do, shoot them with an arrow?" Oliver's gaze went to the two newbies, "I am considering it." He said coldly.

"Don't worry! He's kidding!" Felicity loudly assured them. "How is this different from telling me or John when your mother shot you and you were poisoned with Curare?"

Barry decided now was a good time to ask questions, "Your mom shot you?" Oliver looked at the Central City CSI with barely restrained fury. The look silenced her.

"It's different because I did my homework! I knew what type of people you were before revealing anything! These two are people I don't know, an ex-teacher from Detroit and a CSI Assistant from Central who lied to us about who she really was!" Oliver shouted his point, his raised, angry voice didn't affect Felicity, who refused to back down.

He took in a breath, trying to reign it in, "I don't just tell people who I am."

"I'm not gonna tell anyone, and you don't have to thank either of us, but you should thank _her_ ," Barry said, pointing at Felicity.

"If this is how you repay people for saving your life it's a wonder how you're still alive," John added as Oliver walked over to them, "I'm only going to ask you once, be quiet." He semi-calmly ordered them, phone buzzing before they could formulate a reply.

Barry and John let out sighs of relief as Oliver moved over to the table and answered it, even though he was recovering from near death neither thought it was a good idea to push the Vigilante any further.

Oliver looked at the text before setting the phone back down with a sigh, "I have to go home." The Archer looked at Diggle and Felicity, "That man I fought in the bunker, he has what he needs to mass produce the serum from the island. And we have to stop him." He told the two of them.

He started for the stairs but stopped when Barry spoke up again. "He touched your skin when he grabbed your neck, I was able to absorb the residual oils from his skin which, when added to a gel-based polymer, _might_ be able to recreate his fingerprint." Barry made sure to stress the maybe.

Oliver seemed pleased, if only because he didn't do anything aggressive and turned to leave without a word.

".. so is he usually like this before morning coffee?" Fox asked, trying to liven up the room.

"Never meet your heroes, right?" Felicity said to Barry.

From the way she sighed, Barry evidently expected someone else to be under that Hood, maybe someone nicer.

 _ **=================================EKM===================================**_

Shane was on the verge of a _meltdown_.

Yesterday, John had texted Felicity about something business related and she called him about how John would be dropping that CSI chick off at the station.

At the time he'd given a silent cheer, John seemed to finally be making a move, but now he wasn't so happy.

Unless John somehow developed super-charming powers alongside his speed along with the confidence with women to use them, he didn't manage to get anything done just by driving a girl to the train station so she could go home.

If, by some miracle, he had managed to get to home plate that fast, John would've probably called him about how he potentially made a mistake and Shane would finally get to have the conversation he's always dreamed of.

Instead, John hadn't said a damn thing and was missing work, no calls, no reasons, nothing.

And that was _after_ he used his speed, and only two times ago he was found by some _jackass_ who almost beat him to _death_.

He wasn't answering his phone, wasn't returning his texts, wasn't doing _anything_ to convince Shane he was okay.

The older Fox son had been pacing in Mr. Queen's office for going on thirty minutes by the time the door opened, a certain Ms. Smoak walking in surprised by his presence.

"Oh, hey Shane."

"Ms. Smoak, thank God." Shane stopped his pacing and moved closer to her, worry plastered all over his face, "Have you heard from John at all since last night? I tried his phone, several times in fact, but got nothing."

The woman looked worried, "No, I haven't seen him lately, maybe he got caught up with something?"

"Should we call the police?"

Felicity raised an eyebrow, "Aren't you overreacting? I'm sure he'll turn up soon, John seems like a pretty smart guy." She assured him.

"Maybe you're right, it's just..." Shane trailed off as he debated telling her... "About two months ago he had a medical emergency and decided to _not_ tell his family, so I'm just worried about his health." There, that's a tactful way to put it. No need to inform the woman about super-speeding yellow psychopaths.

Felicity gave a nervous smile, "I'm sure he's fine Shane, give him more than a few hours at least. He seemed pretty infatuated by Barry so seeing her go must've been upsetting."

Shane took in a deep breath, "Guess you're right..." He'd give John another two hours before going diving into a full on panic attack.

"Later Ms. Smoak," Felicity gave a small smile as he left the room.

"Oh thank God, I thought I'd have to sneak this while he was in here," Felicity grabbed the flash drive connected to Oliver's computer, it contained some files about a drug-smuggling ring that were likely to be the distribution for whatever the beefy guy could possibly be putting on the streets.

That might not be part of his plans, but it always paid to be prepared.

Palming it, Felicity left the office and began the trip back to the Arrowcave.

 _ **=================================EKM===================================**_

Ever since Oliver had left, Barry started snooping around the room examining ever single detail like Sherlock Holmes on a particularly mysterious case that he just had to solve.

Her examination was so thorough, John briefly entertained the notion that she knew more about the room in five minutes than Oliver did since he started using it.

Barry had the largest grin when she started inspecting Oliver's suit, turning to Fox with the most amazed, gleeful look on her face. "I _knew_ the vigilante had partners," The presence of Diggle and the returned Felicity said it all.

"He likes to be called The Arrow now." Diggle clarified.

"You three have dealt with some real nasty people," She continued, too distracted by the room's knick knacks to really pay attention to anyone else's comments.

"Doll Maker, Count Vertigo, Dodger, Huntress." She listed off while looking over Oliver's arrows, going over every detail she could see with her keen, CSI eyes.

"You seem to know a lot about him," Fox noted, amused.

"It's... kinda an obsession of mine." Barry seemed a bit embarrassed, having gone off on a bit of a geeky tangent.

"We noticed," Diggle's tone seemed somewhat annoyed.

"Barry," The voice of Oliver Queen suddenly spoke, drawing her attention away from the arrows. "That rat poison you gave me, are there any side effects."

"Uhm, yeah. Hallucinations, maybe." Barry wracked her brain any others, "Oh! And excessive sweating." Oliver turned to Felicity and Diggle, "Are you sweating? Excessively?" Oliver didn't reply to her question.

"Who or... what are you seeing?" Felicity's concern was appreciated.

"Shado... she was on the island with me."

"Huh... Shado... Sara... are you sure this wasn't a fantasy island?" Felicity backed away from Oliver, getting back to work tracking down that Super-Soldier.

"You _did_ train in a jungle! Or... a forest environment, hence the green!" Once again, excitement overwhelmed Barry as she probed Oliver for more tidbits of information about his past.

Oliver closed his eyes while Barry spoke, her voice petered out after a few seconds of silence on his part. "Uhm, I'll draw some blood, see what's up."

"Thank you," Was his clipped response as the two moved to the medical station.

Fox moved closer to Diggle while Barry and Oliver spoke about getting the vigilante a better way to conceal his identity.

"Is he always like this?" Fox asked the other man, Dig gave a small shrug.

"Not always, no. I guess having his secret revealed to two strangers in one night without his consent just has Oliver in a bad mood."

"Mmm, guess I should be glad it isn't something about us then." Fox leaned against a support pillar, looking at the ceiling he could swear a thumping noise was coming from above...

"Verdant is above us." Dig informed him, Fox's question didn't need to be said.

"Interesting, hey, listen. Next time you want help with keeping your buddy alive can you just ask instead of shooting?" Fox was still a little agitated by the manner in which they arrived.

Shot in the neck by a guy advancing on them from across the street was way worse than being approached by normal human beings.

"Didn't have a whole lot of options," Dig let out a chuckle he recalled that little encounter, "and seriously? When you're in a stressful situation you do math out loud?"

The ground was suddenly the most fascinating thing in the world to one John Fox, "... I'm not used to stressful situations." Totally wasn't trying to beat the crap out of whoever shot them at speeds exceeding sound, no sir.

Not at all.

"I found Cyrus Gold," Felicity's voice interrupted their conversation as she kept typing away at the computer.

"Who's Cyrus Gold?" Oliver asked as he and Diggle moved closer to her workstation.

"The superhuman that left you an inch from death the other night." Was Diggle's blunt answer, "Kid managed to pull his print off your neck."

Oliver turned to Barry, her contributions were quickly adding up.

"Yup, I've had facial recognition software scanning all over town. He's at the corner of Delgado and 25th right now but we're about to lose him."

"What's near that area?" Oliver stood over her shoulder.

"A parking lot, a marker, and a motel."

"Could be where he's hold up," Diggle pointed out.

"I got this," Oliver hadn't walked two feet before Diggle voiced an objection.

"Oliver why don't you let me handle this one, it's just recon."

"Sure you want to risk it?" Fox suddenly interjected.

Oliver and Diggle turned to him, "What?" Oliver asked.

"Well, I mean, what if he pulled some sort of security recording from that Warehouse? He'd know the identities of you three if that's the case and would probably be on the lookout for you." The ex-teacher pointed out.

"You told them about the warehouse too?" Oliver was starting to wonder what these two hadn't been told.

"Listen, I'm not really helping out here,"

"So you want to go outside and do some recon work on a guy who nearly killed Oliver?" Diggle had a somewhat amused look on his face.

"I want to not be sitting on my ass doing nothing."

Diggle and Queen shared a look before turning back to Fox, "You stay behind me, and if it goes south you run out like your life depends on it. It probably will." Diggle laid down the rules of the operation. If Fox didn't follow him to the letter he was instantly out.

"Deal." Fox agreed, _"What the heck is wrong with me?"_ He instantly asked himself, maybe that tranq had some residual effects...

As the three made their way out of the arrow's lair, Barry turned to Felicity.

"Don't worry, I'll figure out what's wrong with Oliver." She promised.

"You'd be the first," Felicity joked.

 _ **=================================EKM===================================**_

"Okay kid, when we get in there look for anything that could tip us off about this guy's goal, notes, newsclippings, receipts, computers, anything." Diggle went over the details with Fox as they took a few moments to prepare.

"Got it,"

"If anything goes south you get out of there immediately, this isn't someone you want to be in close proximity to," Oliver reminded.

"Alright," Fox sounded a bit impatient, he'd heard this a few times during the drive here.

Diggle and Oliver shared a look, hopefully, this didn't go bad.

"Let's go," Diggle and Fox got out of the car, "If you get bored I keep a box of crossword puzzles in the glove box," Diggle told Oliver as they approached the building.

"3X2(9YZ)4A," Fox muttered under his breath as they approached Cyrus Gold's domain. The lights dimmed for just a second.

"Say that to calm yourself or something?" Diggle asked as he pulled out his sidearm.

"Yeah," Fox could feel the world slowing down just a bit, it took some concentration to keep his perceptions at a normal speed.

Diggle gently opened the door to Cyrus' room, sweeping the area with his sidearm, "It's clear," He told both Fox and Oliver.

Fox walked over to an open book, reading the opened pages took less than a millisecond, "Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday, Christened on Tuesday," He began to read quietly.

"Married on Wednesday I know the poem, it symbolizes the seven stages of life, from birth to death" Oliver's voice came through in their ears.

"Which stage is this guy on?" Diggle asked.

Fox saw movement out the corner of his eye, "Dig!" He warned, the ex-marine turned to face the resident.

Cyrus Gold grabbed his arm before Diggle could aim at him, it fired four rounds uselessly as Diggle tried to wrench his arm free.

Fox tackled the armored fighter, slamming both of them into the wall and causing the giant to release his captive, "GO!" Fox shouted to Diggle.

Cyrus grasped Fox by the back of the neck and threw the inconvenience across the apartment.

Glass shattered as Diggle made his way down the fire escape.

Cyrus chuckled, "Abandoned so easily?" John smirked as he got back up.

In the blink of an eye, he crossed the distance, landing a hard kick to Cyrus' abdomen, forcing a grunt out of the super-human.

Not done yet, Fox grabbed his enemy's face at super-speeds, slamming him into the floor.

Just before he hit the ground, Cyrus managed to slam his fist into Fox's chest, almost breaking his ribs and drawing a pained gasp from his foe.

Gold rose from the ground and grabbed Fox by the shoulder, throwing him into the far wall next to the window.

Seeing his chance, Fox clambered to the fire-escape, lightning trailing off him and causing Cyrus to halt as he took in the shocking sight.

Fox made his way down the escape at almost normal speeds, pausing at the last rung of the ladder.

 _"This is gonna suck,"_ Fox closed his eyes and dropped, landing on his probably fractured ribs, "GAAHHH!" He screamed out as a car drove up next to him.

"Get in!" Diggle almost shouted, opening a passenger door.

Fox followed the order in a heartbeat and found himself laid out on the back seats.

Oliver hauled ass the moment both John were in the vehicle, Diggle was holding his arm and let out a groan of pain, "He picked me up like I was nothing," Diggle informed Oliver.

"Threw me across the apartment effortlessly," Fox added, grimacing as they hit a bump.

"Felicity, call for backup," Oliver instructed the tech guru.

"On it," She replied in an instant.

 _ **=================================EKM===================================**_

"Okay, last set coming up man, c'mon." Diggle had one arm helping to ease Fox down several flights, the other man winced every time they went down a step.

It was pretty impressive that he hadn't screamed, kid could deal with pain well.

Dig's own arm wasn't doing so hot if he were to be entirely honest, and he didn't get any help what with Oliver going off to speak with Officer Lance.

"Oh my God, John...s... what happened?" Felicity rushed over to help Fox out, he tried to make as few movements as possible.

"Met Cyrus Gold, cost an arm and a leg," Fox joked, wincing as they eased him down.

Barry dropped the arrow she had been inspecting and began to instead inspect the two injured people in the room.

Working Fox out of his shirt was a difficult task filled with many high pitched squeals of pain from the alleged tough guy, _"Okay, definitely bruised, possibly fractured, probably not outright broken."_ Barry's cursory inspection revealed to her as she gently traced his ribs.

"What's the diagnosis?" Fox said in between shallow breaths, it really _freaking_ _hurt_ if he took normal breaths.

"You'll live," Barry assured him.

"Anyway to make that untrue? This really hurts, it's not worth it anymore, pull the plug," Diggle shook his head, Fox either had a bad sense of humor or was a wimp.

"Can't do that, but I do have Morphine." While Barry was rummaging around, noisily looking through the medical supplies, Fox hurriedly whispered the shutoff command for his powers.

He knew from some accidental experimentation that medicine was utterly useless while he was speeding, his augmented body metabolized it so fast it did nothing.

It would look more than a little suspicious he reckoned if he was entirely unaffected by a very strong painkiller.

Barry got it all setup and within a few minutes the pain disappeared, and Fox was happy.

"Thank you attractive policewoman officer, can your magic serum be with me all the time?" He loopily inquired.

Barry looked a bit embarrassed as she helped out Diggle's arm next, "Umm... no, sorry. That'd be bad," Fox full on pouted.

"Darn," He looked genuinely upset, like an evil master plan had been foiled.

It only took a few more minutes for him to fall asleep, gently snoring as Barry patched up Diggle as best she could.

"He's pretty brave," Diggle began, "tackled Cyrus when he had me without hesitation."

"Wait, really?" Felicity spun around in her chair.

"Yeah"

"I'm guessing that didn't go well," Barry pointed out as she finished wrapping Diggle's arm, he thanked her and experimentally flexed his hand, only for the pain to flare up.

Making a fist is still a no-go it seems.

"Didn't get much, just saw a poem book," Diggle admitted, a glance at Fox's jacket revealed a small rounded plastic object in one of his pockets. "What's this?" Diggle voiced as he fetched it.

It was a storage device of some kind.

"Huh, looks like it wasn't a waste of time after all," Felicity grabbed it and plugged it into their computer.

"Guess he snatched it from Cyrus, impressive."

Bringing along Fox had been beneficial after all.

* * *

 **Fox totally fished that USB out of Cyrus' pockets while tackling him, he's got quick hands. Also, reason he could affect Cyrus in the slightest is because of super-momentum, his kick was traveling pretty fast, as was the whole tackling thing to begin with.**

 **I'm skipping over the entire Laurel, Roy, Thea, and Sin storyline for the Three Ghost's episode, for my purposes it is really unnecessary to show any of it.**


	11. Three Ghosts Pt 2

Barry examined the contents of the beaker, it contained a green liquid and any movement had it sloshing around. _"This will need some more time on the burner,"_ Barry thought to herself.

On the gurney behind her the still slumbering John Fox turned on his side before a soft snore escaped him, honestly, Barry was starting to get a little worried about him.

He'd been out since yesterday night and it had been 12:30 last time she checked, she had tried to gently wake him up but he hadn't really responded to her attempts.

He hadn't made any signs of distress, so that was good.

But he'd been sleeping for more than twelve hours straight with no sign of waking up soon.

Letting out a sigh the forensic scientist went back to examining the concoction she was brewing up.

"Hey-" Barry would forever deny the embarrassing squeak that graced the arrow cave, "-what are you doing?" Felicity walked up next to Barry and looked over the lab equipment.

"Oh, um, nothing. Just messing around with something I thought about." She explained, placing the beaker on the bunsen burner and letting it sit.

"Shouldn't you be trying to figure out what's causing Oliver's hallucinations?" Felicity reminded.

"The scanner's on it right now, sample results should be done any minute now." Barry turned to face the returned woman. "You're really worried about Oliver, huh?"

Barry had a feeling it was more than worry for a friend.

"He takes too many risks, even when he isn't hallucinating about his sexy island adventures." Barry barely stopped herself from letting out a scoff.

"Hmm," She wiped a bit of spittle off her mouth, "The other night, I asked if you liked Oliver." It had been very shortly before Oliver called her back to the ball, just before the alleged dance between her and the currently unconscious John.

Felicity claimed she didn't like Oliver.

Barry had reason to believe otherwise.

"I told you, I don't," Felicity emphasized it this time.

"I remember," Barry gave a nervous laugh, Felicity could be a bit scary at times. "But, _if_ you did, I could see why." Felicity narrowed her eyes.

"I mean, Oliver isn't really my type, but I can see the appeal. I mean, he's a billionaire by day and saves the city by night." Barry pointed out the list of reasons.

"You sure you don't want to date him?" Felicity's eyes got just a bit more suspicious.

"Like I said... he's not really my type. I just... know how it feels to like somebody and they don't even know you exist." Felicity's expression softened as Barry went down memory lane.

She had been crushing on a boy all throughout school and never worked up the nerve to talk to him. A missed opportunity in her book.

She doubted he even knew her name.

"-and S.T.A.R. Labs' founder Harrison Wells promises that when the accelerator turns on it will usher in a new era of scientific advancement is at hand." Barry and Felicity turned to the screen.

"Guess I won't be back in time to see it turn on." Barry lamented as she looked back at her equipment.

Yet another thing she'll be late for.

"Soo, any plans for Christmas?" Barry changed the subject, with all the craziness she'd be introduced to recently having something normal to talk about was a plus.

"Lighting my menorah," Felicity answered, chuckling.

The staircase leading to the club made a rattle as Oliver appeared and joined them.

"Hey," Oliver greeted them.

"Hi, how're you doing?" Felicity made sure to ask.

"Fine, it's just... a little crowded at my house," Oliver said diplomatically, dealing with what Laurel, Thea, and Roy were getting into was a bit too much right now. "I wanted to come down here to get a little privacy." He finished.

"Oh, well, we can go watch the countdown at Big Belly Burger Barry," Felicity more or less ordered the other woman.

"Right, oh! Your blood analysis is almost complete," The CSI made sure to inform Oliver.

The archer looked at the sleeping John, "He probably won't wake up," Barry added before leaving.

Taking a tennis ball, Oliver grabbed his bow and let one off.

The arrow never hit its mark.

It felt like lightning coursed through him as Slade Wilson caught it.

"What's the matter, kid?" The mercenary smirked, "Look like you've seen a ghost." Looking around the cave, Slade let gave an approving look.

"This is a nice place, way more comfortable than that fuselage on the island," Slade commented, walking around the place like he owned it.

"You're not real," Oliver didn't want to deal with another hallucination.

"Neither are you," Slade shot back, tapping an arrow on the display case for his suit. "You told everyone when you started this crusade that it was about making up for your father's sins." He looked right in Oliver's eyes.

"That was a lie," He snapped the arrow right in half, "This charade is to atone for your own sins."

"You're dead," Oliver was done with this.

"You're not a hero, you're not a brother you are nothing." Oliver turned away from the hallucination, "Do _not_ turn your back on me."

"You're gone."

"Wherever I've gone, it's time you joined me," Slade's words were punctuated by shoving Oliver into a tool cabinet.

Oliver recovered and swiped at Slade with is bow but he dodged it.

Grabbing his enemy by the shoulder, Slade threw Oliver into another table, the Archer halted himself on it.

"They say a coward dies a thousand deaths," Slade gave him a brief reprieve, "But even that wouldn't be enough for you."

"I tried to save you, and her." Oliver had _never_ been a coward on that Island.

"But you couldn't, just like you couldn't save this city," Slade said just before going in again, the two masters exchanged blows fast as lightning and strong as stone.

In the end, Slade pushed Oliver back and put him in a chokehold, "The island didn't make you strong, kid." Slade whispered into his ear.

"It revealed you to be weak," With that, he threw the archer through his suit display, sending shards of glass all over the base.

His head snapped back to Slade, but he was gone. Oliver took a look around but there was nothing.

He was gone.

"Whadz goin on?" John slurred as he finally woke up. Oliver pushed himself from the floor and let out a sigh.

He needed a broom.

 ** _==================================|EKM|====================================_**

 _"Imma lose my mind if John doesn't call in the next ten minutes,"_ Felicity's words had assuaged his worry for a time but within only a few hours Shane was on the verge of another breakdown.

He had been pacing around his living room for the last half hour and every second got worse.

Every moment filled with worry and guilt and a whole bunch of other bad things.

What if John had been murdered? What if somebody had knocked him out before he could say"-the equation, of course!" Shane's eyes widened as the idea struck him.

Barging into his little bros room Shane began going through any place he thought he'd put a sticky note or something of that nature, something to remind him what the equation was to activate his powers if he forgot.

It took a good ten minutes of searching but soon enough the older Fox sibling found it.

Taking a seat on his brothers bed, Shane took a moment to compose himself.

"Okay then... 3X2(9YZ)4A!" Shane spoke the formula out loud.

Nothing happened.

Looking around, the elder Fox frowned, "Maybe I didn't say it right?" Trying again yielded the same result.

"You gotta be kidding me," Shane tossed the paper away after the fourth reading.

The worry hit him again like a runaway vehicle, not only did he have _nothing_ on his brother's whereabouts, but he couldn't even try to search himself.

 _"Time to file a missing person report."_

An older brother freakout was imminent and as Shane started towards the state he squeezed the steering wheel tight, the police were going to have to bear it while he lost his mind.

 ** _==================================|EKM|====================================_**

"What happened in here, did someone break in?" Felicity and Barry returned to the cave, now with Diggle and Fox up and about, with two bags of takeout and went back to their stations.

"No," Oliver said.

"Glad to see you're up," Barry smiled at Fox.

"Me too," Fox chuckled, "Did I say anything embarrassing while I was loopy?" He probably did _something_ dumb.

"Uhh," Flashes of last night came to Barry, Fox calling her a pretty policewoman lady most prominent.

That was fine though.

"Nope, you went out like that," Barry snapped her fingers before looking over Oliver's blood results, "Oh hey, your blood analysis is done. Good news." She got his attention.

"So you know what's in my system?" Oliver asked as he looked over her shoulder.

"Uhm, that's the thing-" She double checked to be sure, "-your blood's clean." Which would mean the rat poison wasn't affecting him, so that's good at least.

"There's nothing wrong with you."

"Then why am I hallucinating?" Oliver demanded.

"I don't know," Barry admitted with a whisper., "But-" She said in a louder voice, "-whatever your problem is it isn't pharmacological it's psychological."

"It's all in your head," She and John reworded it at the same time just as Oliver said "It's all in my head."

"Oh my god-" Felicity said shocked, "-Oliver," She pointed at the screen.

Barry let out a gasp.

 **Several Officers dead in Bust Gone Wrong**

Fox felt ice in his veins.

He needed to see his brother.

Without a word, he began towards the staircase.

"Where're you going?" Felicity's voice called out.

"To make sure Shane knows I'm okay." Knowing him, the older Fox was throwing a fit not seen since John had wandered off during a camping hike.

He'd been fine, but Shane had spent the better part of a day trying to find him in the forest.

While it was funny back when they were kids, recent events had hammered it home to John just how important it was to make sure in worrying times that everyone was okay.

 ** _==================================|EKM|====================================_**

Shane was driving down an unusually empty road, pushing around 40 mph when his door opened in a flash of yellow.

"Jesus!" Shane jerked, _badly_ , almost causing the vehicle to swerve but John steadied the vehicle before it could go out of control.

Shane came to a safe stop before slowly, almost robotically, turning to his brother.

"Do You." Almost a day.

"Have Any." Without contact.

"Idea." In a city.

"How worried I was!" With the worst crime rate in America!

Shane punched John's arm _hard_.

"Yowch!" John didn't even try to dodge it, he had watched his brother's hand in slow motion for a few seconds and just accepted it.

"Where were you?!" Shane demanded.

John averted his eyes, "I... was helping out the Arrow." Saying who the vigilante actually was seemed to be a breach of trust.

Shane didn't give him a response, he just started to drive again. "Well, I guess that's as good a reason as any." He relented.

"I was also hit by a tranq dart at the train station and given morphine after fighting a superhuman and breaking a rib or two."

The car screeched to a halt.

Shane punched his arm again.

"Explain."

 ** _==================================|EKM|====================================_**

Breaking into hospitals was surprisingly easy, Oliver found. Though, how many security measures took into account grappling hook arrows?

Getting into an Officer's room was almost effortless. Oliver activated his voice modulator before speaking to Lance "How are you, Detective?" He growled out.

To his credit, Quentin seemed like he was expecting this visit, he didn't even flinch, "I'm alive, unlike almost everyone in my unit." He wouldn't show weakness in front of the vigilante.

"I'm sorry about your partner," He apologized.

"I took him in there," Quentin said, it was him that had brought Hilton in there, not the vigilante.

"Because of me," Oliver insisted.

"Hate to break it to ya, but not every death in this city is your fault." The Arrow didn't try to argue with him.

"I got this off Gold," Lance reached over to his bedside and put a key on it. "Hopefully you can do something with it."

Oliver pocketed the clue

"I didn't believe it at first, but this guy, it's like he's not even human." What Gold had done to his team...

They were _nothing_ to him. Just flys to be _swatted_.

"He's human," Oliver stated.

"Then you can kill him, right? For Hilton, and for me." The man had cut a bloody path through the SCPD.

He needed to be put down, and the Vigilante was the only person he knew had a chance to do it.

The vigilante left the way he came, leaving Lance alone once again.

 ** _==================================|EKM|====================================_**

Diggle kept an eye on Oliver.

Ever since he'd gotten back from the hospital he hadn't said a word, he just kept sharpening one of his arrows over and over again.

Raising a brow, Diggle finally spoke up once the Vigilante took the arrowhead to the grindstone for the fifth time. "I think that's sharp enough," He told Oliver.

The Archer's body language screamed frustration as he stopped.

"Apparently I'm not," Oliver commented, "Dig, do you think I'm crazy?"

Diggle looked back at the other two people currently present, Barry and Felicity were going over the items they'd recovered from Cyrus.

The two women had promised an update soon, but they were still willingly chasing a superhuman murderer.

"No more than the rest of us," Diggle concluded, inching a bit closer to Oliver so he could lower his voice.

"I saw... I saw a man named Slade Wilson," Oliver confided, "He was with me on the island, he was my friend and it's because of him that I survived that Hell, but..." Oliver looked away as the memories came flooding back.

An encounter in the forest with Anthony Ivo, a snap decision to protect Sara Lance.

A dead friend.

"but like Shado, he is dead because of me." He concluded.

Diggle didn't need to say anything to prompt him to continue, just an empathic look.

"Lance told me not every death in this city is my fault, and maybe he's right. But those two are."

Diggle looked down in thought, Oliver might not be being very clear but he could see the issue.

"When I got home from Afghanistan, I saw... I saw friends that got killed. Ghosts." Dig began, "Survivor's Guilt, why us, not them." Diggle explained.

"I know why," Oliver replied.

"Then why isn't your problem," Diggle said patiently.

"How'd you make them leave?"

"I figured out what they were trying to tell me, you'll have to figure yours out too if you want peace," Diggle told him frankly.

The stairway door creaked open as John Fox returned to the cave, "And where have you been?" Felicity began her mini-interrogation of the suspect.

"Telling my brother I was fine," Fox gave up the info she desired without resistance.

Felicity narrowed her eyes, "Did you tell him anything... important?" Fox shook his head.

"Other than the fact that I was alive and kidnapped by the Vigilante? No. No names or anything like that."

The computer next to Barry and Felicity began beeping.

Internally Barry was relieved, that scan had been running for what felt like hours. "Finally! So, we scanned the key Detective Lance found and the USB John fished out of that guy's pocket. The key fits a lock in Cresent Circle in The Glades, and the USB gave us an exact location." She laid out for Oliver.

Oliver turned to his bow's mantle and grabbed hold of it.

"Where are you going?" Felicity asked him incredulously, "You can't go out there in your condition," The fact Oliver thought he was okay enough to potentially fight Cyrus again was madness in her eyes.

"I have to stop this," He was the only one that could, he'd done it before.

"Oliver, Gold left you half dead which is 50% better than how he left Detective Hilton." Felicity brought up, an entire swat team had been killed and they didn't even manage to _scratch_ Gold.

"Felicity," Oliver interrupted, "I have no choice." She averted her gaze.

"I'll be back," He told her gently.

She looked him in the eyes, "Promise me."

Oliver held her gaze, almost like he was staring into her soul, and left.

"You two can go home," he said as he passed Allen and Fox.

Their assistance was no longer required.

 ** _==================================|EKM|====================================_**

The sound of glass shattering wasn't really that noticable in the Glades, at least, Roy hoped that was still the case as he broke into the blood clinic and unlocked the door.

He kept his head on a swivel as he tried to find any files on people who've donated, listening for anybody else in the building as he found an unlocked cabinet.

Fingering his way through the names he located one Max Stanton, reading it over gave Roy a sense of vindication, however bittersweet it may be. Max had donated blood only a few weeks ago, there's no way he could be a candidate for blood donation if he was actually using drugs like the cops had claimed.

Roy closed the file and some lettering behind Max's photo as the air caught it. Flipping it over, Roy read the word "Mirakuru" in bold lettering.

 _"What the hell is Mirakuru?"_ Footsteps brought him out of it, Roy hid behind a desk as they got closer and closer. Whoever they were, they were only a few feet away.

If they got much closer, he'd be discovered.

The footsteps moved back maybe ten feet before Roy heard liquid hitting the ground, _"They're gonna torch the place,"_ Whoever these people were, they suddenly became a whole lot more dangerous in his mind.

Roy took three rapid breaths before he jumped over the desk and bolted out of the room, knocking over the guy with the gas can as he booked it with Max's file.

 _"Don't stop don't stop don't stop,"_ that was the only thing on his mind as he ran, he didn't want to know what would happen if they caught him.

An arm shot out and close lined him, Roy felt like he'd just ran straight into a truck. Landing on his back, the last thing he saw before passing out was a man in a black mask hovering over him.

When he came to the first thing Roy felt were leather straps holding him to a small chair, the only clothing on his torso was the gray wifebeater he'd put on earlier.

He was situated next to several vials of a glowing green liquid, the man he'd pushed past earlier handed one of the vials to a man in what looked like a scarecrow mask.

"It's ready," the vial holder said, handing a syringe to the masked man.

Roy tried to keep his breathing normal as he realized just how screwed he was.

The masked man took two steps closer to the erratic teen.

"Is this where you killed Max Stanton? Hmm?" His seemingly confident words were weakened by the jittery voice that carried them. The hooded freak paid him no mind and brought the syringe closer.

"What are you doing?" Roy demanded with a tint of fear in his voice, "You stick that in me I'll kill you," He promised.

"No Brother Roy," The masked man finally spoke, his voice dual-layered to hide his voice. "You'll kill _for_ me." With that, he shoved the needle in Roy's arm and squeezed.

Roy let out pained screams as it coursed through his veins, the contents were like liquid fire, burning him from the inside out as it traveled along his system.

Behind him an explosion came from above, a green-garbed figure slipped through the hole in the ceiling.

The instant he arrived the Arrow took stock of the situation, there were three targets in the room. A suited man was pulling a gun on him, a masked man was standing over Roy with an empty syringe, and Roy was withering in pain.

 _"I'm too late,"_ The Arrow let off a shot at the man before him just as he got his gun out, tying his feet together, the tripping man flung his gun away.

With machine-like precision, he had another arrow aimed a the remaining man.

"Brother Cyrus told me he killed you." Blood stated. Arrow noted his demeanor to be relaxed like he felt himself to be in complete control of the situation.

"Where'd you get the Mirakuru? WHO GAVE YOU THE FORMULA?!" He was in no mood for small-talk, just answers.

"It was a gift," Blood answered, "A gift I will use to save this city."

"Grhhhhaugh!" Roy tried his damnedest to keep from screaming, but the pain was too great to keep quiet.

Oliver's instincts screamed at him to turn left, just in time to see Cyrus Gold charging at him.

He sunk an arrow right into the monster's chest but Cyrus kept running.

Oliver maneuvered around him and landed a hard kick to his side.

Cyrus grabbed hold of the Arrow and threw him into the stone wall, Oliver's body making an indent.

Roy's groans of pain continued as Blood inspected him.

Cyrus ripped the arrow out of his chest and punted Arrow across the room just as Roy's screams ceased.

Blood checked his pulse.

"Another failure," He said somewhat disappointed.

Oliver stopped trying to get back up, _"I failed..."_ the Arrow closed his eyes, even the threat of Cyrus Gold was meaningless now.

Roy... he would freely admit he didn't like Roy all that much. But Roy was a citizen of the city under _his_ protection, and while he didn't like it, his sister and Roy were close.

How as he supposed to tell her that Roy died and he, the Arrow, failed to save him?

Maybe Slade, and Shado, were right.

He wasn't a hero.

He was just a failure.

"Get up Oliver"

He opened his eyes and saw before him something impossible.

"Tommy?"

"You're not gonna die down here," Tommy stated, he said it like it was an irrefutable truth.

 _"He's not actually here,"_ Oliver realized, "Tommy, I'm sorry." Tommy's stern look did not change as he waited for Oliver to continue. "I let you die."

"You didn't let me die, Ollie." Tommy's ghost seemed almost amused by the thought, "You fought to save me, because that's what you do."

"You fight to help people. When you came back from that Hell you weren't broken, and you aren't a murderer despite what I said. You are a hero." Tommy declared.

"You beat the island, you beat my father. You can beat him." Tommy nodded behind them to the motionless Cyrus, "So get up. Fight back."

Oliver looked at Cyrus Gold as Tommy disappeared, time seemed to finally pass again.

There was a fire in his eyes, in his spirit.

"Kill him," Blood ordered.

Cyrus charged the vigilante once again.

The Arrow jumped to his feet and dodged the Mirakuru Soldiers blow, and landed a hard kick to his torso.

Cyrus stumbled from the blow.

Oliver let loose with an unrelenting series of blows to the man's head, pushing the superhuman back.

Gold managed a brief moment of reprieve as Oliver backed off and launched haymaker at the Vigilante, intent to kill him.

Oliver saw it coming from a mile away and ducked underneath the strike.

With another hard kick, he pushed Cyrus next to a transformer and launched an explosive arrow.

The resulting explosion knocked Roy over as a mass of green goo covered Cyrus' head and _burned_ him. Oliver jumped back as the ceiling came down on Cyrus as he screamed.

Blood observed the chaos and made his escape while the vigilante was still occupied, there was always next time.

Oliver got back to his feet once everything went quiet, Cyrus Gold was motionless on the floor with some sort of green-foamlike material covering one-half of his face. Even from a few feet away, Oliver could tell the seemingly invincible man was finally dead.

"Roy," Oliver rushed over to the kid, freeing him from his bonds. "I am not leaving anyone else to die!" He promised as he began performing CPR.

"You're strong kid, c'mon, fight! FIGHT!" He shouted.

"Guuh!" Roy gasped, coughing as Oliver stood over him.

He let out a relieved sigh.

Now he just had to figure out how to explain this to Thea.

 ** _==================================|EKM|====================================_**

 ** _The Next Day_**

John slumped down next to Shane, shaking the couch they were sitting on. "Could you change it to 52?" he asked, John wanted to see the moment the Particle Accelerator went online.

Barry would probably be watching it too.

"Sure," Shane answered, he hadn't really been paying attention to the soap opera anyways.

It was always the same stuff, two people get infatuated by another, they marry, then they get divorced. The current couple had done that 30 times, and that was only each other.

He didn't want to think about all the others.

The reporter was in the middle of saying something when they switched over, "-just ten minutes away from the new S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator turning on, according to its founder Harrison Wells it will catapult us into a new age of scientific understanding and learning." The woman, apparently a Linda Park, said to the man at the desk.

*vrrrr*

John pulled out his phone as it buzzed, the caller ID said "Allen"

"Oh ho ho. Looks like the mystery woman decided to have a little chat," Shane needled his little bro. John let out a frustrated, suffering sigh. Ever since he'd come home Shane refused to just let it go no matter what he said.

"Shut up," he really wasn't doing himself any favors by leaving the room to take the call though. "Hello?"

"Hey," Barry's voice had a smile behind it.

"You make it back okay?" John made sure to ask.

"Yeah, everything's fine here," It was subtle, but she had hesitated before answering, "You?" She flipped it on him.

"I'm fine, having to deal with my brother, but other than that everything's great." He couldn't very well say that Shane wanted him to ask her out, that'd be awkward.

Barry's understanding hum carried over, "I know the feeling," Interesting...

"You have a sibling?" He inquired.

"Sorta," He heard a door being opened, "I mean, she's kinda my foster sister." On his end, John leaned against the kitchen countertop. Barry was seemingly moving things around wherever she was. "Oh! So, would you be alright with maybe grabbing a bite to eat sometime?"

"Umm"

"Like, y'know, as a friend thing," Barry clarified.

 _"Crap,"_ John hadn't expected to be placed in the Friend Zone, "Sure, got any time in particular?"

"Saturday, maybe?"

"John get in here!" Shane shouted, he hastily went back. "Listen." His older brother pointed at the screen.

"We're getting word to evacuate, the storm has apparently affected the Accelerator and the team at S.T.A.R. Labs is working to get it under con-" The screen went to static.

"Barry?" John heard thunder, he heard thunder that he'd only heard once before.

He heard a crash.

"3X2(9YZ)4A" Shane jumped as all the electricity in his house went out.

"What's-" John was gone before he could finish.

* * *

 ** _And with this, the Prequel-Arrow part of the story is finished_**

 ** _Next chapter is going to be the final time skip barring season endings as we finally head into The Flash._**


End file.
